


The Kits are Alright

by P_C



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Family, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 01:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13625241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/P_C/pseuds/P_C
Summary: Nick and Judy have fallen into a stable grove as parents and are trying to raise there kits right. But when several instances arise will it be to much to handle in the big city of Zootopia and is their anything they can do to help change the city again.





	1. Chapter 1

"WAAAAAAA"

"Nick it's your turn to take care of him." Judy elbowed Nick who had his paws and tail wrapped around her in their normal sleeping arrangement.

"Yes I want more blueberries, why would you even ask that?"

Judy rolled over and looked at his still sleeping form, she hated waking him up as he was so peaceful but she had just been up feeding them and she needed sleep. She gave him a rough shove and watched as his eye snapped open. "Go take care of your son, it's your turn."

Nick watched as Judy rolled back over, her slow rise and fall telling him she had already fallen back asleep. He was about to complain when another whine from Nathan brought Nick out of the bed and over to him. He looked down at the little bunny and reached in to pick him up, "Hey there little guy, what's wrong."

The small bunny slowed his crying and looked at Nick as he was picked up, a small smile growing on his gray muzzle. "There we go little guy, no need for the crying." Nick started slowly walking around with him trying to get him to calm down, but to no avail as the little bunny just kept crying.

Nick held him under the arms so he could look right at him, "Hey buddy what's wrong, why all the tears?" He finally stopped crying and gave a big grin to Nick, "There we go, see there is no need to…" Nick stopped as a loud wet fart came from the bunny followed by giggles and kicking.

Nick took a big whiff and turned his head enticing more laughs from the small bunny, "Oh that is foul little one." He walked over and placed him down on the changing table while pulling out a diaper and wipes. He cleaned him up, wrapping him in a new diaper and placed him back into the crib. As he was walking away he began to cry again.

"You want to cuddle with daddy is that it little guy," Nick reached in pulling Nathan into a soft embrace against his bare chest. The little rabbit nestled himself into Nicks fur, cooing. Nick walked out into the living room with his son and slowly paced around the room savoring the closeness with him. After twenty minutes of walking Nicks back had begun to hurt him, and with Nathan still being awake, he decided to lay down on the couch to see if he could get the little bunny to sleep. Nathan sunk deeper into Nicks soft fur, Nick flinched as the little bunny pulled at his fur.

Soon Nick heard the deep soft breaths of the bunny on his chest. Looking down his eyes were closed with a small smile on his muzzle. Nick turned his head and looked out the window over the city below. Only a few short years ago he was out on the streets hustling for meager money, now he had a stable job, a true home, and a family that loved him. He settled himself more into the couch and closed his eyes.

Judy woke up with the glaring sun in her eyes, she quietly cursed at herself for not closing the blinds. She pulled the blankets tighter while scooting back trying to feel for Nick to warm her up, but she never met with him. Rolling over she realized he wasn't in bed and sat up. Looking over at the cribs and saw Nathan was not in his. Groaning she left the comfort of her bed and checked on Sophia who was still sleeping in hers. Smiling Judy leaned over the railing and kissed the small fox on her head and left the room in search of her boys.

She walked down the short hallway to the living room and to the bay window looking out at the rising sun, she closed her eyes and soaked in the warmth of the rays. She slowly took in a deep breath and let it out turning around and smiled at the sight before her. Nick had a leg dropped off the edge of the couch, his head was back with his mouth was wide open, and both his paws wrapped tightly over the sleeping bunny gripping his chest fur. She walked over and gave both of them a kiss before wrapping them in a blanket and heading to the kitchen to start breakfast.

She put on a pot of coffee and pulled out items to make some sweet potato pancakes. She was about to pour out the batter for the first one when the monitor lit up and Sophia's light crying came across. She put the bowl down and walked to the bedroom looking into the crib. Sophia stopped crying and got a huge grin across her muzzle and rolled around in excitement to see Judy.

"There's my happy girl, your always so excited to see mama." She reaching in and picked up the smiling vixen. She shoved her fingers into her mouth and began to suck as she walked out of the bedroom, Are you hungry little one?" The little vixen gave her another big smile behind her fingers. As Judy rounded the corner to the kitchen she heard the sizzle of batter hitting the hot pan and was surprised to see Nick standing over the stove.

"I figured you would be sleeping more Nick." Judy walked up and getting on the tips of her toes gave him a kiss on his cheek.

"I heard you talking to Sophia and figured she would want to eat after waking up. So I decided to finish up breakfast for you." Nick looked down to see both Judy and Sophia smiling up at him.

"Thank you, Nick. What about Nathan."

"He's still sound asleep on the couch." Judy gave him an angry look, "don't worry, I wrapped him up right in the blanket and placed him in the crack between cushions so he won't fall off. Besides they're only 3 months old, they're barely grabbing onto things and hardly rolling around yet."

Judy walked to the couch and sat in one of the recliners opening her shirt slightly so Sophia could feed. She rocked gently in the chair looking out at the rising sun for a few minutes before Nick walked in with a plate of pancakes. He got a sly smile as he looked at Judy, "Hey carrots thanks for the show."

Judy looked down and saw with Sophia's squirming as she fed the other half of her shirt had fallen open completely exposing her breasts to Nick. She smirked and shook her head, "It's not like I was trying to you horney fox. She just moves around so much while feeding her it just happens. Ouch! You stop that little one, no biting." Sophia let go to give Judy a big smile before latching back on to eat some more.

"Once their teeth come in I'm either going to pump or switch them to formula from then on, I really don't feel like having bloody nipples." Nick laughed as he set the plate on the table next to the chair. He had already cut up the pancakes for her to make it easier to eat while she nursed.

Nick went back to the kitchen to cook up his pancakes as Judy at hers while she nursed Sophia. It wasn't long before nick was back with his plate high with pancakes and sat in another chair to eat. As he ate he smiled over at Judy juggling eating and nursing, managing it like a pro.

"They're not going anywhere, you don't have to stare at my breasts like they're going to disappear," Judy said to nick catching him staring at her as she hadn't felt the need to cover herself up.

Nick choked a bit on the bite he was eating, "I was just watching you not trying staring, although they are very nice. It just amazes me how naturally this all comes to you, Judy."

Judy blushed at the compliment and tried to hide her face with her ears, "Well I did have two hundred and seventy-five brother and sisters, maybe some of my mom rubbed off on me." Sophia let go again and looked up a Judy who moved her ears back to see her properly. The little vixen just looked up at her before letting out a loud burp.

"Well I guess someone enjoyed her breakfast," Nick said with a laugh before finishing off his pancakes. He got up and took Judy's plate with his as she put Sophia in her bouncer chair. She was settling back in her chair soaking in the warmth as a new set or cries took her attention. With a sigh, she got back up and went to the couch to get Nathan as he was wanting to feed as well.

Nick cleaned up the dishes from breakfast as Judy nursed Nathan. Nick looked over the counter and stared at his family again, he couldn't help but think of what a lucky fox he was. Finding his mate, starting a family, and finally being accepted by society. There was still the occasional look and comment said under someone breath but the couple learned to completely block them out. He watched as Sophia started to get fussy in her chair so he went over and picked her up, tickling her as he brought her to his chest.

"Oh, baby girl I just love your little giggles and smiles. Let go find you a nice dress to wear, its such a nice day out we should go out and do something."

"How about going to the gardens again it's been a while since we've done that," Judy called after Nick as he walked down the hall.

"That sounds good," He yelled back setting Sophia down on the changing table and getting her dressed.

"There's my beautiful girl," He held her up looking at her purple dress matching her eyes. Her little arms and legs kicking around as she squealed in delight.

"That she is Nick," Judy said walking in, placing Nathan down and giving Nick a kiss. "She's going to have a hard time fighting off all the boys that are going to come after her."

"Well, that's where Nathan comes in as her big brother to protect her."

"Why do you think she'll need protecting, part of me as in her as well."

"Very true carrots. If she does take after you, it will the boys who are in trouble."

They laughed as Sophia just gave them a confused look then started giggling too. They got themselves and Nathan dressed before heading off to the botanical gardens. The drive was relatively short from their new home and soon they were walking around enjoying all the sights of the gardens.

The little kits were snapping their heads around trying to take it all in. Nick picked some flowers for them to see and smell, Nathan took a liking to the white rose presented to him. He held onto it and brought it to his nose smelling it, a smile grew across his muzzle. Nick and Judy watched as Nathan examined the flower and smiled when he brought it to his nose again taking in a deep breath. Then promptly put it in his mouth and started trying to eat it.

"No buddy don't do that." Nick took the flower from his son before he could gum it too much and potentially choke on it. Nathan didn't appreciate having it taken from him and started crying. "Hey buddy I just don't want you to choke is all, here have this if you want to chew on something." Nick handed him a teething ring, Nathan accepted it happily and started gumming it.

"You may be taking him off sooner than expected carrots, they way he's trying to eat everything I expect his teeth to be coming in soon." Nick watched as Nathan gummed the ring greedily, already forgetting about the flower.

"The way both of them have been biting I think so as well. I'll miss the closeness with feeding them but my nipples will thank me, though." She rubbed her still breasts, still sore from the morning's feedings.

Nick gave her a sly grin, "Does that mean…"

"Nicholas Wilde, they are not your playthings!" Judy gave him a light hit on his arm. With having the kits and her surgery they have not been able to have any intent time together.

Nick walked over and pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on her head. "I know that Judy, I was just playing around."

She pulled herself higher into him breathing in his scent, which was now mingled in with the scent of their kits creating a whole new smell that she absolutely loved. They held each other for a while before the sounds of the kits wanting attention brought them apart. Nathan had dropped his teething ring and Sophia had somehow gotten her arm trapped in the straps of the seat. After getting them settled back down they found a nice open spot to set out a blanket to have a small family picnic.

They ate the light meal Judy had made and watched the old kits play around them, both in their thoughts of their kits being able to run and play with them when they get older. "So carrots what do you think is going to happen as they grow up? Do you think they'll face the same prejudices we have?"

Judy looked over at the two kits playing on the blanket, their happy squeals bring a laugh and smile to her muzzle, "I don't know Nick. I hope not, but you never know. Some mammals are just backward and will never change. We just have to hope the years will be kind to them."

They both turned and watched as the kits started to push themselves up and try to move around. Sophia was getting it and started scooting around the blanket but Nathan couldn't get the hang of it and began fussing as he would slip and fall lightly. Nick smiled at his son and scooped him up and tickled him bringing a loud bout of giggles. Judy smiled at Nick and Nathan playing as Sophia crawled and pulled herself into Judy's lap. She played with the fur on Sophia's head as she curled up and fell asleep in Judy's lap.


	2. Chapter 2

"There you go Nathan, you're getting better at it. Now if I could just get this darn thing to work," Nick was trying his best to capture a video of Nathan and Sophia crawling on his phone, but the latest software update was causing him problems. "Okay got it, now Nathan get closer to your sister so I can get both of you at once." Nathan looked up at Nick, then to his sister, before letting out a big smile and laugh and crawling in the opposite direction.

"What are you doing Nick?" Judy walked around the counter separating the living room and kitchen with two travel mugs of coffee to see Nick trying to corral the kits, which brought more laughter from her. Sophia had managed to crawl under a chair and was munching on something she found on the floor and Nathan had wrapped himself up in a phone charging cable and was chewing on the connector.

"I want to get a video of them to put up on Furbook but they are not cooperating with me."

Judy sighed and glared at Nick, "You know how I feel about you posting all these pictures and videos of our kits on there. There still are the crazies out there who think our lifestyle is unnatural."

"I know carrots, I just can't help posting things about them. But I have it set to only share with our friends so I think we'll be safe." Nick finally managed to untangle Nathan and was now wrestling out whatever Sophia had in her mouth.

Judy just shook her head and set Nicks coffee down on the table by the couch, "Well hurry up, we need to get them to daycare and get ourselves to work."

"Okay, Carrots." Nick took the piece of paper from Sophia's mouth and placed her in a bouncer so he could finish getting ready for work. A short time later with the kits dropped off at daycare they pulled into the precinct parking lot.

"Ooooo Niiiiiick," the familiar sound of Clawhouser's voice echoed across the atrium of the precinct, "that video of Nathan and Sophia is just precious." Judy smiled and patted Nick's arm as she continued on to the bullpen.

"Thank you, Ben. The are very precious to us, I wouldn't give them up for the world." Nick was smiling from ear to ear. He never expected to be in his position but his kits truly did mean the world to him.

"I bet, you are so lucky. Maybe someday I'll get to experience that joy." Ben placed his head in his paws looking down at Nick.

Nick jumped up and snagged a donut from the box on the table, "You will one day buddy. We'll help find you someone special." He hopped down and made his way to the bullpen, climbing up into his seat just as Bogo walked in.

"Officers Wilde, you'll be patrolling Tundratown today. We've had a lot of reports of mix species couples being targeted over there, so I want you two to be extra vigilant." Bogo lowered his glasses giving the two a stern but concerned look.

"Yes sir, we will." Nick took the folder marking their patrol route and jumped down, followed closely by Judy. They went to their office before heading on patrol as they had an hour before it started. Judy went through their e-mails as Nick hopped on to Furbook.

"Hey, Carrots your parents and a lot of your family are liking and commenting on the video of the kits. They can't believe they are crawling already. We really need to bring them down and visit them again, it's been a while." Nick thought about it and the last time they went to the farm was last year for Christmas so hardly any of the extended family had seen them personally.

"Well we have some time off we need to use, why don't we make plans for next month to go home." Judy was almost done answering all the e-mails when Wolford popped his head in.

"Hey you two, cute video of the kits. I've seen it pop up a few times and mammals are really liking it."

Judy looked over at Nick as he thanked Wolford for the compliment. "Nick I thought you said it would only be shared with our friends? Why was Wolford saying he saw it multiple times."

Nick looked over at the concerned face Judy was giving him, "Probably mammals just sharing the video, it's nothing carrots."

Judy came off her chair and walked over to him, "Nick, no more on Furbook please. Who knows who could all be looking at what is getting shared outside our friends."

Nick melted in the pleading eyes Judy was giving him, those bright amethyst eyes on the verge of crying. He took her head in his paws, dropping the joking tone he had earlier. "Okay Judy. I promise nothing else will go up unless you say it's okay. I don't want to worry you."

With him using her actual name and not one of the normal pet names Judy knew he would keep his word. "Thank you, now let's get going. Those streets aren't going to patrol themselves."

Judy walked out of the office as Nick turned to shut down his computer. He took a quick glance at the video and his jaw dropped, "Oh no." Twelve thousand. Twelve thousand shares and climbing rapidly with even more comments. Nick closed his eyes, "Shit, maybe she was right." He shook the thought from his head and finished powering down the computer.

The sound of glasses hitting tables and chatter filled the room, mammals coming and going, food and drink orders being called out, the general busyness of a bar in Tundratown at noontime. The white snowshoe hare sat quietly in the corner drinking his beer and browsing on his phone for his next hook up later that night. A message brought his attention away from the list of potential mates and nearly made him spit out his beer.

"Take a look at this disgusting shit. Why do they think this is okay?"

He clicked the link which brought him to a Furbook page that was showing a video of two hybrid kits trying to crawl. He nearly threw his phone after hearing how happy whoever it was filming them. The disgusting look they had, clearly they were supposed to be a rabbit and fox, but they were so deformed. The rabbit's ears were significantly shorter than they should have been and the foxes muzzle was short with more of the round rabbit nose than the triangular shape. The more he looked the more pissed he got. He chugged down his beer and slammed it onto the table.

"They think this is so cute, I'll show them." He shared the video on another page and began to type furiously on every share of the video he could find. "They'll wish they had never been born, can't stand them. All these damn hybrids coming out now, they should all be destroyed."

"So next month we go home to visit the farm?" Nick took a drink from his coffee that the had refilled at lunch and absentmindedly looked out the window for anything of interest.

"That sounds good, we just need to request the time off when we get back from patrol. So why are you so excited about going back, aren't you a city fox after all?" Judy had her eyes darting around looking for anything to break up the monotony of just driving around.

"Well yes I was born and raised here, but the few times we've been out there I can really see retiring and getting a small plot of land out there for us. Who knows, maybe open up a pawpsicle stand." Nick looked over at Judy with a mischievous grin.

"Really Nick," Judy looked over at him, "I thought you had given up all of that. I really don't want to have to explain to our kits why you know so much about…"

"JUDY, STOP!" Nick yelled out, grabbing onto the dash in front of him. She slammed on the brakes, causing the cruiser to start to skid on the snowy road. Luckily she kept it under control and stopped just short of flattening a snowshoe hare who was stumbling across the street.

The hare looked up in surprise at the screeching then shot them the single finger salute, "Watch where you're going you damn cops, you could've killed me!"

Judy rolled down the window, "Sorry sir, are you okay?"

The hare just stared at Judy through his wobbling then his eyes shot wide open at the realization of who it was, "You! You're the sick freak, burn in hell!" He continued across the street and down the sidewalk stumbling as he went having trouble staying upright.

Nick looked over at Judy and her shock at what the hare had said to her. "Carrots… Carrots… Judy!" She blinked and turned to look at Nick. "You're blocking the road, let's pull over there and talk."

Judy didn't say anything, she just got the cruiser moving and over to the side of the road and parked it. Not a word was said for a while, both of them just stared out the windows as the snow began to fall.

"Do you want to talk about what happened Judy?" Nick finally broke the silence trying to get her attention back.

"I… I… just can't believe what he said." Judy had a tight grip on the wheel, her breathing was slow and heavy, tears had started to form in her eyes.

Nick unbuckled her seatbelt and pulled her into him as she broke down, wetting the front of Nicks uniform. "There, there Judy. It's okay, just let it all out." Nick did his best to comfort the rabbit breaking down in his lap, but it seemed like nothing could console her.

They sat in the patrol car for nearly a half hour before Judy was calm enough to continue their patrol. Not much else was said and luckily there were no more incidents. They made their way back to the precinct and changed to head home.

The were riding in the car in silence again when Judy finally spoke, "I am going to hold both of them so close when we get home. I knew there were mammals who didn't care for our lifestyle but this is the first time I have actually seen it myself."

"I'm sorry you had to see it, Judy. It's something I've had to deal with my whole life as a fox." Nick's mind went back to the night at the junior ranger scouts and the subsequent events of his life leading to this event. "We will work through it. Remember what you said, some mammals just won't be able to be changed."

"I know Nick, I just hope things won't be so bad when our kids are older." They pulled into the daycare and Judy rushed in and did exactly as she said. Throwing open the door she saw Nathan and Sophia laying on the floor fighting over a toy but upon seeing their mom both put their paws into the air and started squealing with joy. She ran over and scooped up both of them in her paws and planted kisses all over them, enticing even more laughter and giggling from them.

Nick walked in more calmly, if not more clumsily after toting the car seats in. He stood to watch Judy with the kids and smiled as an attendant came up to him. "They behaved very well today and their crawling is getting so much better. Even from the video this morning despite what mammals are saying. "

Nick looked perplexed at the porcupine "What do you mean by what other mammals are saying?"

"Well... most comments on the video I've seen are sweet and carrying. However, a lot of them are starting to pop up really mean and, quite frankly, disgusting." The porcupine shuddered at the thought of what she had seen. "I dare not repeat some of the things that were said, some are very troubling."

Judy came over with the kits and started buckling them into their car seats, "What's going on nick." She was concerned about the look he was giving the attendant.

"Nothing Carrots, Stacie was just telling me that one of the other kits hit Nathan in the face fairly hard with a toy so we should watch out if he starts whining or rubbing it." Nick tried his best to make up a lie for her sake.

Judy turned back down to Nathan and lightly rubbed his face, "Oh my poor baby, mommy will take you home and make sure you're alright." She picked up his car seat and thanked Stacie before carrying him out to the car.

"Thank you, Stacie, for not saying anything to her. It's my fault for posting that video, now I have to figure out a way to contain it." Nick picked up Sophia and carried her out to the car. They were nearly home when Judy got a muzzle time call from her mom.

"Oh hey mom, to what do I owe this surprise?" Judy's smile was finally back on her face, her true smile.

"I just wanted to call and see what is going on with the video of the kits from this morning." Bonnie had a very concerned look on her face, "The things we are seeing about it is starting to scare us."

"What do you mean they were scaring you, I thought the comments were positive?" Judy quickly opened up Furbook and the first post she saw shocked her. It was an anti mix species page and the video of her kits was posted on the top with several hundred comments about it. Comments on how they should all be destroyed and look how deformed they looked were near the top. She scrolled through several of the comments before she closed the app, sick to her stomach.

"Judy, Judy are you okay?" Bonnie was now very concerned about her daughter.

Tears were pouring from her face now, "Mom… I will call you… later." She quickly hung up the phone as they pulled into the driveway.

"Nick. I Want that Furbook account deleted NOW!" Judy got out of the car and slammed the door before grabbing Nathan's car seat from the back and stormed inside.

Nick hung his head, "What have I done?" He got out and grabbed Sophia's car seat, thankfully she had fallen asleep on the way home. As Nick entered the home he saw Nathan's car seat was empty and heard soft cries coming from their bedroom. He walked in and saw Judy holding Nathan tight laying on the bed crying. Nathan had a puzzled look on his face wondering why his mommy was crying.

Nick placed Sophia in her crib and crawled next to Judy wrapping himself around her. She scooted back into him holding Nathan a bit tighter. "I'm so sorry Judy. It was so stupid of me to put that video up without thinking what others would say about it. I deleted the account and promise I will never do something like that again."

Judy rolled over and placed Nathan in-between them, "Look at him, Nick. He's beautiful, they both are. Now mammals want them dead. Some of those comments went as far as to how they would do it. They are just kits, Nick! Who would say such things?!"

"Mammals who are very sick in the head Judy, that's who. I promise you I would never let anything happen to our kits. God help any mammal who does and who gets in my way, I won't have to pretend to go savage."

Judy saw the fire in Nicks' eyes as he said that and she knew that he would do anything in his power to keep them safe. He had risked his life more than once to save hers already. "I believe you Nick, but there has to be something we can do about this."

"Right now Judy there's nothing we can do, so far all they have done is make comments behind a keyboard. If they were to threaten us directly then we could, but right now we can't do anything. I will talk to Bogo about it tomorrow though, and we'll see legal as well." Nick was lightly rubbing her back and ears trying to calm her down.

Judy looked down at Nathan who was all smiles and playing with the front of her shirt. "Sounds good Nick. For now, though, let's get some food and try to forget about this." She got up and walked slowly towards the kitchen as Nick placed Nathan into his crib.

He leaned down and kissed his forehead, Nathan reached up and pulled lightly on Nick's whiskers. "I promise you, buddy, I will never let anything happen to you, your sister, or your mommy. Nothing." He kissed him again and went to join Judy in the kitchen.


	3. Chapter 3

“Are you serious? A burlap sack and thrown into the harbor?”

“Yep, without a second thought.”

“Damn, that's cold.”

“It’s all they would deserve. Damn abominations, they really all should be killed and the mammals who produced them made permanently sterile and locked way. They are a disease to our society, it's completely unnatural.”

The two snowshoe hares sat at their workstations typing up the news stories they were writing for the Zootopia Times. “If I ever produced offspring that looked as hideous as them they would be dead as quick I as could possibly do it.” He pointed his paw at the second screen with the frozen image of Nathan and Sophia on it.

“I just wouldn't even put myself in that position. Just stick with other hares and wear a condom and you will never have to worry about it. Speaking of which, I hooked up with Melinda last night and damn! She was so tight I thought she was going to break me, one night with her and you’ll never look back.” The second hare slid over a paper with a phone number on it to the first.

“She better be, the last one girl was so pathetic. I didn't even give her cab money, just got it done and kicked her out.” He laughed at the image of the hare naked on the street after tossing her out of his house.

“Stan! Mitch! Will you two shut up about your damn conquests and just get those stories out? We go to print in four hours so I need them in one, now get it done!” The lynx slammed the door to the small office.

“I hate working for that prick. You know he's one of them right?” Stan slammed his paw on the desk scatter a few files around.

“Really? I though he was married to another lynx and had two kits.” Mitch looked puzzled at Stan who had already started typing furiously.

“Oh, he is. However, he also has a side piece he meets up with occasionally in his office late at night. That damn zebra intern. She just turned nineteen and wants to be a reporter. So he brings her in pretending he's going to give her a staff position, but all he's doing is screwing her. Just wait until I finish this whole series, he’ll be in for the shock of his life. I’m so glad we do editorials so we can write whatever we want.”

“As long as the board will approve of it, which I’m still surprised they allowed you a five piece set on this.” Mitch looked over at Stan again and the title of his piece, Hybrid’s; Zootopia’s Hidden Virus.

“Well a good majority of the board feels the way I do, so it was fairly easy to get their okay. Now to just put it all down and show this city the problems these freaks will bring us.”

* * *

“I’m sorry Judy, but there really is nothing we can do. Nick is right, they did not directly threaten your family so we can't do anything about it. All mammals do have the freedom of speech, even if we don't like what they have to say.” The precinct lawyer looked over all the comments the two had printed out. Most were praising them and their family, but a startling number did have hostel tones to them. “We will look into this. With all the mixed species incidents in tundra town we need to keep a close eye on these things. If they escalate, we may have to take action. But we have to do it carefully. One misstep and mammals will come crashing down claiming we’re infringing on their rights.”

“So infringing on their rights outweighs protecting my kits?” Judy slammed her paw on the arm of the chair.

“Oh course not Judy. We just have to go about it the right way.” Nick tried to calm Judy down, but inside he was feeling the same way.

“I don’t care who's rights I infringe on. I will do everything I can to protect my kits!” Judy was standing in the chair now, her foot slamming into it hard enough that ripples were forming in the water glass on the lawyer's desk.

“Judy. Calm down please,” the lawyer gave Judy a stern look, his wolf eyes trying to get her to back down, “I said we will look into this. It’s my job to make sure all the officers here do their job within the law. It is also my job to make look after the well-being of the officers, and if some mammal is harassing them I will prosecute them to the fullest extent possible. I will talk with Bogo about opening a case on this, then we can assign someone to it and find out if there is more behind this. For now, I suggest both of you take the rest of the day to calm down and try to push this out of your minds.”

Judy seemed to calm down slightly after hearing this, “Thank you, Leo.” She hopped down from her chair and walked out, followed closely by Nick.

Leo leaned back in his chair rubbing his forehead,”What a mess this has turned into.” He reached down and took the papers again, looking over the comments, some were very sick and twisted. From drowning, skinning, poison, neutering, imprisonment, the list went on. “This is going to be very hard to prosecute. They haven't taken any overt action, it’s just internet tough guy stuff right now. Ugh.” He took a drink from his glass and picked up the phone, dialing Bogo, not looking forward to this conversation.

* * *

“I just don't know anymore Nick, with all good we’ve done for this city it seems like they’re turning their backs on us.” Judy stared out the windshield, guiding their car through traffic to the daycare to pick up their kits.

“I know it seems that way but it’s a small group of mammals. You said it yourself, some mammals are just backward and can’t be turned no matter what. I promise you though, nothing will happen to you or the kits. I will protect you with my life.” Nick placed a comforting paw on Judy’s as they pulled up to the daycare.

“I know you would Nick, I just hope it won’t come to that.” They exited and walked in to see their kits scooting around playing with the others, all smiles and giggles, oblivious to the hate that was being tossed at them.

As they were buckling the kits into their car seats Stacie walked up with a solemn look on her face, “Nick, Judy. I’ve been getting some weird phone calls today that I think you two should know about.” Judy’s stomach started to feel sick again, “They kept asking if I allowed hybrid kits at the daycare. When I said yes the first time they started yelling about how could I allow that to happen and wished the building would burn down.”

Judy’s eyes went large in shock as Nick felt his heart sink into his stomach. He began to wonder how anyone knew this was the daycare they brought their kits to.

“I had a few parents come and pick their kits up early saying they had no idea I allowed hybrids here and what kind of establishment was I running. The phone calls have been going fairly regularly as well but when I say I allow all kits they go off on me again. I never once said that your kits are here, just that I allow all kits to come. So far it has only been phone calls but you may want to look at another option for looking after them.”

This time it was Judy’s heart that sank. Her ears dropped behind her head and her shoulders sunk as if a huge weight had been placed on them, “But the kits adore you! You're so good with them.”

Stacie just hung her head, “I know, and I love watching over them. They are so playful and happy all the time. But if someone were to come here there's not much I could do if they wanted to hurt them. I have my taser but that can only do so much. I’m not saying you have to take them somewhere else, I’m just thinking it might be better.”

Stacie hugged Judy as the tears began to fall from both of their eyes. Nick didn't say a word, outwardly he was calm and cool but inside he felt completely defeated. He took the car seats out and locked them into the bases in the car and got it started.

After a few minutes, Judy finally came out. Her ears were still down, one covering part of her face as she used it to wipe the tears coming from her eyes. She got into the passenger seat and buckled up as Nick pulled away. “She said we can still bring them by until we can find someone new to watch them. She gave me a few contacts of mammals who are friendly to mixed species couples. She suggested to see if one of them would do an at home sitting.”

“Well if that would be better for them we’ll look into it, for now lets go get something to eat. How does going to the Green Bean sound?” Judy just slowly nodded her head okay and looked out the window. The rest of the drive was quiet except the odd sniffle from Judy and the kits making noises in their seats.

Thankfully the traffic had lightened up from when they left the precinct and they made it to the restaurant before the silence got too awkward. When they pulled in they noticed a sign in the window that read “under new management”.

“That's weird.” Nick commented, “This place was always full and I figured it was very profitable. Wonder why they have someone new running it.”  
“Maybe the old owners got a better deal somewhere else. Hopefully nothing has changed, it was always so good here” Judy remarked, as she opened the door for Nick as he carried in the car seats.

Entering in the familiar Caribbean music still played and the same decor was on the walls, so at least that part didn't change. The walked over to a booth and as they began to sit down a cheetah came walking up, “May I help you two?”

“Umm yes, I would like the carrot and banana…” Judy had begun to speak when the cheetah interrupted her.

“No not with an order, I’m wondering what you two are doing here?”

“We're trying to get some food like we always have.” Nick gave him a very perplexed look.

“Well, you’re going to have to find it somewhere else. We don't serve your kind here.” Other customers were looking over at the small family. Some were glaring at them while others were just as confused as Nick and Judy were.

“What do you mean you don't serve our kind? We’ve been coming here for years now and its never been an issue.” Now Judy was getting upset again, this was their favorite restaurant and now they were being told they couldn't eat there anymore.

“By your kind, I mean you as a mixed species couple with your… things.” He pointed at the kits sleeping quietly in their seats. “We don't want your kind here, leave or I will call the police and have you arrested for trespassing.”

“You do know we are police officers right?” Nick stood up and showed the small badge from his wallet he always carried.

“What difference does that make? You are still trespassing if you don't have any official police business and I ask you to leave and you don’t. I can refuse service to anyone I want to, this is my restaurant and I say leave!” The cheetah’s yelling woke both the kits who started crying after being scared awake.

Judy put a paw on Nicks arm, “Nick. Let's just go, we can eat somewhere else.”

Nick shrugged off Judy’s paw and got right in the face of the cheetah “No. Call the police! You can’t do this to us, we have every right to be here as any other mammal.”

“No, you don’t. Larry call the police.” The cheetah walked back towards the kitchen yelling.

“Nick please let's just go. I don't want to create any more of a commotion than we already have.” Judy was now pulling at Nick sleeve to get him to follow her but he stood rock still, staring at the cheetah who had retreated to the kitchen. Realizing Nick wasn't got to move Judy picked up the car seats and began walking to the door, “I’m taking the kits to the car. One of us has to stay out of jail to care for them.”

“I won’t be going to jail Carrots.” Nike broke his stare and looked down at Judy who had tears rolling down her face.

Judy placed the car seats in their bases and just sat crying in the car. Soon a police cruiser pulled up and Wolford and Delgato stepped out and into the restaurant. Judy watched as the cheetah came out of the kitchen and started flailing his arms and yelling like crazy. Nick responded by yelling just as much. Delgato stepped in between them as Wolford pulled out some cuffs and patted Nick on the shoulder. He shook his head as Wolford placed the cuffs on him and escorted Nick from the restaurant, the whole time the cheetah tried to get around Delgato constantly yelling.

As Nick was taken out Judy came out of the car, “Wolford, you can’t seriously be taking him to jail.”

Wolford just shook his head as he put Nick into the back of the cruiser, “Sorry, Judy. This is mostly just for show to get that guy to be quiet. We’ll just be taking him to the precinct to file the paperwork.” He and Delgato got into the cruiser and head off toward the precinct, Judy could see Nick in the back his head staring at the floor as they drove by.

She got into the car and grabbed her phone looking through her contacts. Finding the one she was looking for she punched the name and began the muzzle time call.

“Oh hey Judy, how are… Judy hon, have you been crying?” Bonnie looked concerned at her daughter.

“Yes, I have mom. Would you mind having visitors for a few days?”


	4. Chapter 4

"Nick, we are sorry about this, it's procedure and all." Wolford looked back at Nick who just kept his head down not saying a word. "Once we get to the precinct it's just a matter of a bit of paperwork and you'll be back home with Judy and the kits."

Nick didn't look up or even move, lost in his own thoughts of what he had just done. Normally he would've just left and be done with the specist mammal but when he insulted his kits and Judy, that is when that cheetah stepped over the line. He did mean he would do anything to protect his family, he just didn't picture going to jail over it.

"Are you kidding me? Wolford, look behind us." Delgato had stopped the cruiser at a red light when he looked in the rearview window.

Wolford spun around and couldn't believe what he saw, "Is he seriously following us to the precinct?" Behind them was the cheetah from the restaurant sitting in his car glaring at the cruiser.

"It would seem so, sorry Nick looks like this is going to get a bit more complicated than we thought." Delgato shook his head as he started driving again making their way to the underground parking lot at the precinct.

"So we are going to have to make a bit more of a show out of this Nick, at least we will be able to remove the cuffs." Wolford opened the door letting Nick out who turned around to get the cuffs removed. Rubbing his wrists he followed Wolford who took a slightly different route to processing. Instead of going straight there from the underground lot he led them all to the counter in the main lobby, timing it just right for the cheetah to be walking in the main doors.

"Why is his not in cuffs! He and his freak family come barging into my restaurant demanding I serve them causing a huge commotion which will probably hurt my business now. He even tried to use his position as a police officer to get away with it!" He was yelling the whole time making his way over to the three at the processing counter. Nick was digging his claws into the wood using all his willpower to not turn around and punch the cheetah for calling his kits freaks again.

Delgato noticed Nick's entire body tensing up like he about to pounce and quickly spun around and intercepted the cheetah, "Sir, this is the police's property, not yours. You will drop your voice and come with me and leave the other officers alone. If you have more information about the event you can give your statement to me."

"Why? So you can just push it under the table to protect your friend. No, I will be speaking with chief Bogo and no-one else."

Delgato bore his gaze "Chief Bogo does not have time for small issues like this. I am the lead officer for this incident so any statement you have to make will be done with me. Now if you come this way I can take your full statement of the incident."

Delgato led the cheetah away leaving Wolford to finish the paperwork on Nick, "What else could possibly go wrong today." After saying that Nick wished he had kept his mouth shut.

"Nick!" Clawhauser's voice spun Nick around just in time for him to try and brace himself from the large cheetah's hug, "I'm so sorry, this is all my fault." He hugged Nick so tightly he began struggling for air.

After hitting Clawhauser several times in the arm to get him to leg go he was finally on his own two feet again gasping for breath. He finally stood upright and looked at the tears coming from Clawhauser's eyes, "Ben calm down. What do you mean this is all your fault?"

"Well, I ah..." Ben looked down at the ground hunching his shoulders and rubbing his paws together in front of himself.

"Ben! What did you do!" Nick lifted Clawhauser's face to look him right in the eye. The burning look made him take a few steps backward. His eyes were narrow slits, paws low but ready, and his mouth was flickering like he was about to snarl.

"I, I, ah..." Clawhauser completely broke down under Nicks gaze, dropping to his knees and bawling his eyes out, "I shared the video of your kits crawling around."

Nick was shocked, "You shared it, without asking either me or Judy if it was okay? That video was supposed to be private for only family and friends, why do you think I had the settings set like that?"

Clawhauser tried to look up at Nick but cowered again under the smaller mammals gaze, "I am so sorry Nick if I had known things would end up like this I would never have shared that video. I was just so happy and proud of you two I thought others would as well."

"Well the wrong mammals go ahold of that video and now I got arrested and getting charged for trespassing!" Nick was furious, his screaming bringing most mammals in the main lobby to a standstill. The only sound that could be heard was Clawhauser's crying. Nick glanced around at all the mammals nervously staring at him, he looked down at his paws and saw all his claws were fully extended and ready to strike. He retracted them in and felt his whole body suddenly relax, his ears dropped back down onto his head and his tail lowered.

"Nick, are you okay now?" Wolford's voice made Nick look back at him, his paw was on his taser ready to pull it out.

Nick lowered his head and turned back to Clawhauser who had slowed down his crying, "I'm no better than they are. Yelling at my friends, causing more problems for my family, what good am I."

Wolford placed a comforting paw on Nick's shoulder, "You're just trying to protect your family and stand up for them. That's what being a good father and husband is all about." He walked over to Clawhauser and helped him up, "Now Ben, go to the locker room and get yourself cleaned up and presentable. I'm sure you two will have time later to fully talk about this."

Clawhauser wiped his eyes one last time and turn toward the locker room, "Ben." Nicks voice causing him to stop and slowly turn around, "I'm sorry, we'll get this all sorted out." Clawhauser gave a weak smile and nodded his head before turning and walking away.

Wolford came back to Nick, "Alright Nick, all the paperwork is in order. Depending on what the owner says in his statement it will end here or it may have to be investigated further if you did try to use your position as a cop to sway the situation." Nick opened his muzzle to speak but Wolford put a paw up stopping him, "For now, I believe you have a very upset bunny at home waiting for you. I'll give you a ride as I'm off duty now.” He handed Nick the bag with his personal items taken when he was arrested.

"Thanks, buddy." They began walking toward the main door and Nick's pulled out his phone from the bag, unlocking it his eyes widened. "Change of location, I need a ride to the train station."

* * *

The ride back home was even more nerve racking then when she first came to Zootopia. Back then it was an excited type of nervousness, a new beginning in the big city to try and change the world. Now the world was changing but not in the way that she expected it to be. Instead of welcoming her growing family she was being shunned and treated like an outcast, even now riding the train out of the city she could see some mammals staring and whispering. The natural instinct the run and hide she had fought down all these years was now coming back to the surface. Pulling the diaper bag closer to her chest with one arm she reached behind it and felt at her waist to make sure her taser pistol was snugly in its holster under her shirt, she didn't want to take any risks with the threats she saw online. Looking down at the sleeping kits she began to wonder what kind of life they were now going to have, she dreamed of one with hope and dreams that they could accomplish anything and now they were being crushed under fear of them being hurt. She was lost in her thoughts when the announcement of their arrival to Bunny Burrow made her jump, gathering her things she made her way to the door as the train slowed to a stop.

The doors opened causing Judy to shield here eyes to the setting sun that shone right at her. Stepping out she took in the beauty that it created on the vast fields around the station, the hue’s or red, yellow, and gold bathed the new growth. The light wind making the small plants look as if they were dancing without a care in the world, she truly did miss the scenery. “Judy! Over here.” Snapped back to reality Judy smiled and waved as her mom can walking up to her, “It’s so good to see you.”

“Thanks, mom.” She let her mother pull her into a tight hug, “Thank you for letting us stay with you guys for a while.”

Bonnie broke the hug but kept her paws on Judy’s shoulders looking her in the eyes, “It’s no problem at all, you are always welcome back home. I just can’t believe everything that's been going on so suddenly.”

“I know, neither can I, I just hope everything is okay with Nick.” She thought back to seeing his riding past in the back of the cruiser his head hanging low. “I do feel bad about just leaving him but I did need to get out of the city for a while. We were planning on coming for a visit anyway, this incident just made that visit come sooner.”

“Well I’m just glad to see your alright and that your boss allowed you to take the time off on such short notice.” Bonnie had taken the diaper bag from Judy and was pushing the stroller down the platform toward the car.

“He has the tough exterior but inside he’s just a big softie, he's tough on all of us but he always looks out for what's best for all his officers.” They made their way to Bonnie’s van and got the kits buckled in before heading off toward the farm.

“So how long are you going to be staying with us?”

“I’m not sure mom. Bogo gave me two weeks off to try and sort this through. Hopefully, that's enough time for things to settle down and we can get back to our normal life.” Judy stared out the window watching the fields go by. The reds and gold slowly replaced with hues of purple and blue and the sun set below the hills, it truly was beautiful here.

They pulled up to the farmhouse just as Stu walked out to call everyone in for dinner and smiled seeing Judy sitting in the passenger seat of the van. “Hey Judy, you're just in time for dinner.”

“That's good because I didn't eat anything on the train, and with the incident at the dinner I didn't even get any lunch either,” Judy called out to her dad as she got the kits out and carried them inside. In the house was the normal hustle and bustle of the farmhouse, little kits being corralled by their older brothers and sisters to the dinner table. The adults grabbing plates and moving to the elder room or to their own rooms to eat in silence.

Judy set the Nathan and Sophia in a playpen to enjoy some time with their cousins and grabbed a full plate herself. Sitting down to eat she was stopped by her phone notifying her of a text, picking it up she breathed out a big sigh of relief.

“What is it, Judy?” Bonnie looked quizzically at her daughter.

“Nick just texted me, he didn't get sent to jail and is on the train here now. Will be here in a few hours.” She messaged him back and began to eat her dinner.

“Well, thats good. I’m sure the kits are going to be excited to see him again.”

“Yes they will, they were looking around so confused when they didn't see him on the train with us. He’s so good to them, he only wants what's best for them.” Judy was hoping he would get to the farmhouse soon as the kits really were confused without Nick. Also, he was the best at getting them to sleep at bedtime so she was going to be in for a long night if he didn't show up by their bedtime.

As it happened he walked in the door just as Judy was trying to get them down to sleep. As he walked down the hall to Judy and his room he could hear the crying of their fight sleep from behind the closed door. He opened the door and saw Nathan in his crib with huge tears rolling down his face and Sophia in Judy’s arms squirming all over the place as Judy walked with her trying to get her to sleep.

Upon seeing Nick Sophia squealed in delight and shot her little paws in Nick’s direction, he smiled and bounded over to her and Judy. Judy smiled at Nick and let him take Sophia from her paws. She instantly calmed down and just stared at Nick who walked over and took Nathan in his paws as well. Sitting down in a rocking chair in the room he slowly rocked to get them to sleep.

He looked over at Judy who sat on the end of the bed just staring at him, “I’m sorry Judy.”

She got up and kissed him on the forehead, “No need to apologize, I know why you did it and I can't be upset over that. I’m just glad your back with us again. So what is the final verdict?”

“Well depending on what the owner told Delgato it could be over or move into a further investigation if he tries to push that I used my place as a cop to get out of it.”

“That's crazy, you just said we were no cops. You didn't try to use that to get him to do anything.” Judy was getting her pajama’s on to sleep herself.

“I know, and they know that as well. But if the owner pushes it internal investigations has to look into it. At least for the time being Bogo has put us both on leave until this whole matter clears up.” Nick slowly rose to place the kits in their cribs as they had both fallen asleep.

Judy looked over at the sleeping kits, “You really do have the magic touch you know that.”

Nick slipped off his pants and shirt and crawled into bed with Judy, “Not sure what it is, they just seem to fall right asleep with me. I can’t explain it.”

Judy slid over and pulled Nick’s tail to cover her, “Well use some of that magic on me to fall asleep and forget this horrible day.”

“As you wish.” Nick pulled her tight into him feeling her slow deep breaths against his chest. Soon light snores were coming from his bunny, he kissed her on the top of her head and closed his own eyes. He hoped sleep would find him soon as well.


	5. Chapter 5

Judy woke up at the crack of dawn, even with being home in Bunnyburrow her normal routine still kicked in. She slowly and quietly untangled herself from Nick and walked over to the cribs holding her kits. She gave a smile as she looked in at their peaceful sleeping faces, they gave small noises and kicks in their sleep. Completely lost in their dreams having no idea of the things some mammals have said about them. She leaned in and kissed both of them on their heads before getting her running clothes on and grabbing her iPod before quietly walking out of the room. Walking through the hallways she could hear other bunnies beginning their day, some off to the fields, other to school, while others were taking care of their younger siblings. She got to the front door and stepped out onto the front porch and began stretching.

The sun was just cresting over the low hills surrounding the Hopp’s farm bathing the area in a golden hue, the low hum of her dad's tractor adding into the sounds of the birds waking up and beginning their morning songs. She closed her eyes soaking in the warmth and serenity of the place, trying to put the past day's events out of her mind. She put in her earbuds and took off down the driveway.

Back in Zootopia, she had her normal route that would take her through their neighborhood waving to all the other mammals starting their day. Down to the nature trail and the small pond that the kits liked to go to splash around in the shallow water, then up the tallest point in the area to get a nice wide view of Zootopia and the sun rose. It was a very familiar and pleasurable run, but back on the farm, it seemed somewhat foreign. She reached the end of the driveway and decided to head down to road to her families stand, figuring a nice three-mile run would get her mind off of things.

The road took her along the fields where her siblings would pop up and say hi and wave as she ran by. Judy smiled and waved back as she passed them, at least something was familiar. She reached the stand in no time at all and instead of turning back she decided to keep going as it was feeling good to just stretch her legs and run.

She left the main road behind at her family stand not knowing where her legs were taking her, but it felt as if they were leading her somewhere. She ran down the seemingly familiar road for nearly thirty minutes when over the rows of corn the top of a church steeple came into view and the deep rings of the bell rang out. The corn stopped and Judy slowed her pace down and turned down the gravel driveway of the church as if she was being drawn to it.

As she got closer she finally realized she why it looked familiar and went around to the back and stopped at the opening to the large cemetery. She took a deep breath and walked in now having a clear idea of why she was drawn there. Passing all the large headstones with the local family names stitched in them she finally stopped at the one she was looking for, Hopps.

She slowly walked amongst the smaller stones placing a gentle paw on each of them. Most she didn't know personally, some of the first Hopps to settle in Bunnyburrow to kits that passed away before she was born. There was a small group of stones that she paused at though, placing her paw on the stone tears began to build in her amethyst eyes. She fell to her knees and openly wept in front of the headstone dedicated to some of her litter mates.

"I'm so sorry, I tried to be strong for everyone but I failed. I was so worried about my kits I just ran, I wanted to protect them and couldn't think of anything else than to just get away." Judy had tears streaming from her eyes now, "why couldn't I be stronger? Why am I so weak?"  
"You're the furthest thing from weak I even seen in a mammal Judy."

Judy shot up wiping her eyes, a slow smile spread across her face. "That's kind of you to say, Gideon."

The fox gave Judy a warm smile, "Well it's the truth. The way you stood up to me all those years ago, always looked out for the younger kits in school and everything you done in Zootopia. You're not weak, not by a long shot."

Judy blushed at the compliment, "Thank you." She gave one last look at the marker before walking over to Gideon, "So what brings you here."

"Visiting my folks, I come down once a week to wash their headstones and clean up the area around them." He turned to look down the rows of markers, he still had his smile but it had dropped into a sad painful one. He turned back to Judy and tried to get his normal smile back, “I'm done and head in back to town. Want me to give you a ride to your parent's farm?”

“That would be nice, thank you. My legs took me a bit further out than I expected so Nick is probably wondering where I am.” They turned back to the front of the church towards Gideon's van. As they neared it Judy noticed slight movements in the front seat, “who's here with you Gid?”

“That’d be Sharla. She don't get out the house too much lately so when I come down here she likes to ride along.”

Judy stopped and looked perplexed at Gideon, “Doesn't get out of the house much? What do you mean by that Gid, are you two…”

Gideon smiled as he opened up the driver's door, “Well why don't you hop in and ask her yourself.” He climbed in and leaned over kissing the black sheep on the cheek and whispered into her ear.

Judy opened the passenger door to see her childhood friend slowly sliding over the bench seat, “Sharla it is you,” Judy pulled herself into the van and closed the door, “it's been ages since we've seen each other. You look… amazing.” Judy couldn't take her eyes off the large bump on her friend.

“Thank you very much, it just gets hard to move around lately thanks to this big lug.” Sharla playfully hit Gideon as he started driving toward the Hopps farm.

“I can't take full blame that you have 3 fox pups growing inside you.”

“I'm pretty sure you can take a large amount of the blame since you put them there.” Sharla hit Gideon a bit harder as he let out a deep laugh.

Judy just looked on at the two and couldn't believe that two complete opposites could come together, “That is fantastic you guys. When are you due, and more importantly when did you guy get together?”

“It was soon after we heard of you and Nick getting married,” Sharla looked hard into the ceiling of the van trying to remember, “I would come into his store almost every day before heading to the clinic for work. There was some tension the first few times but after seeing how much he changed we slowly started getting closer. Even on days off, I would come by the store just to see him, we finally started dating last year and hit it off right away. We got married soon after and now in about two weeks we’ll have three little ones of our own.” She rubbed her belly and smiled.

“I'm so happy for you guys.” Judy looked at the two and remember when Nick and her started dating.

“It was you two that really showed us that we could be open and find love with each other. We're just worried that people around here may not be accepting of the little ones. We had the glances, and Gid lost some business when we got married. But luckily no one has been too overtly against us. Who knows when the kits come though.” Sharla got a scared look on her face and hugged her belly tighter.

Judy shared her concerned look as Gideon pulled into the Hopps driveway. She began thinking about her own kits safety, now Sharla and Gideon will be bringing in hybrids kits to the world, and how many more are hiding the fact for fear of repercussions. Gideon stopped in front of the large farmhouse as Judy turned to them, “I took the kits and ran for fear that someone would try something to harm them, all I wanted to do was protect them. But no I realize running is not the answer, fighting it head on is.” She reached over and took Sharla’s hoof in her paw, “I'm going back to Zootopia and showing them we are not something to be feared and we won't take the hate lying down. I will make sure we have a safe world in which to raise out kits.”

Sharla leaned over and pulled Judy into a tight embrace as she started crying, “Thank you, Judy, that has been my biggest fear of all this is someone trying to harm my kits. Knowing you're going to fight this will make me more at ease.” She released Judy and wiped her eyes as Judy got out of the van.

Judy waved goodbye as Gideon left down the driveway. she turned and heading into the house more determined than ever now with her new mission. She entered the kitchen to see a sullen faced Nick at the table, he looked up and shook his head pushing the Zootopia Times newspaper toward her. “Sit down Judy and read that.” She pulled a chair out and after reading the title all the color drained from her face.

* * *

“Front page, just look at that,” Stan said as he hung up the page on his office wall, “granted it's just the editorial section but still front page.”

Mitch turned from his computer and shook his head, “I still don't think you should've named certain mammals. Just use generalizations, going after specific mammals may backfire on you.”

Stan turned around and sat back at his own computer, “how will it backfire, mammals deserve to know who's an inter and get them out of our city as fast as possible. This virus needs to be cut out as soon as possible.” He opened up his email box and saw it loaded with over one hundred emails. A wicked smile grew on his face as he turned to Mitch, “See, the papers hit only two hours ago and already a loaded mailbox with responses. Mammals want this plague to go…” Stan didn't finish his statement when he saw the titles of the emails. Very few were of praise, most were slamming him for being a bigot and said the things he suggested against hybrids should be done to him.

He was about to open the first one when the door slammed open, “Stan, get to my office now!” The lynx had a look like he was about to murder Stan where he sat. Slamming the door closed the page Stan had just hung up fell to the floor.

“Damn it, what does he want now.” Stan jumped down and walked down the hall to Lee’s office. Opening the door he saw Lee sitting at his desk talking very quickly into the phone and seated opposite Lee was the CEO of the Zootopia Times.

“Sit down Stan.” The zebra motioned to a second chair right next to him. “We have some things to discuss. I’ll let Lee begin once he's off the phone.”

“Yes ma’am, I understand your concern and I will be dealing with him personally.” Lee gave a glare at Stan while pulling the phones from his ear so all three mammals could hear the yelling. “I’m sorry ma’am but I’m going to have to let you go, he just walked in the door. No, I can’t send you his hide after I'm done with him, but I wish I could. Good bye.” Lee placed the phone back down on the receiver and rubbed at his temples.

“You know how much of a pain in the ass you are to me right now.” He looked through his paws at Stan, “I’ve done nothing but answer phone calls since the papers hit the streets either asking for your hide or why the story isn't on the front page of the paper, guess which one I’ve had more of.”

Stan started to open his mouth when Lee yelled, “That was a rhetorical question!” He slammed down his paws on the desk making Stan jump in his chair. “Yes you are an editorial writer and got approval for the piece but actually naming mammals in your piece and going after two of the most well known and respected inter species families in the city, are you crazy!”

Stan was started to get pissed off at Lee’s words, “What does the truth hurt. You're just getting all pissed off because you're a damn inter as well.”

Lee jumped onto his desk with a fire in his eyes, “You piece of shit, my personal life has nothing to do with this!”

“So you screwing an intern and me using that as a reference in my piece has nothing to with your current pissed off state?” Stan just crossed his arms and leaned back into the chair with a smug look plastered on his face.

“I'm going to kill you.” Lee crouched down and was about to pounce when Gabriel stood up, “Enough!”

Lee looked up and at zebra and sat back down in his chair, defeated. Gabriel gave a stern look at Lee before turning back to Stan, “Again, you had an editorial piece and could essentially say what you wanted.” The look of shock Stan gave the zebra gave him enjoyment, “However, when mammals start calling up asking if we all have that stance and when in a two-hour time frame subscriptions have dropped by five percent then I take personal notice.” Stan was about to speak again when the Zebra put his hook up, “I don't want to hear anything from you. From what I read in the story and the display presented here I have no problem with this decision, you're fired.”

Stan was stunned, “You.. you can't do that, what about my rights! Free speech and all that.”

Gabriel got a wicked smile on his face, “When it comes to my paper and with that my reputation those rights go out the window. With that drastic of a loss of subscriptions from one piece, I have to look out whats best for this company.” He walked over to Lee’s door and opened it, “I’m going to use one of your lines, we have to cut out the tumor before it has a chance to spread. Now, get out before I call security and have you forcibly removed.”

Stan hopped down and walked out the door and looked over his shoulder, “This isn't the end, I’ll make sure of that.”

The zebra stepped into the door way stretching himself to full height making a forbidding sight to the hare, “You lit a powder keg no question of that. However, this is the end of you and your part in this.” He stepped into the hallway and looked down to the security desk. “If you value your job then get down here and remove this hare at once or you’ll be fired as well!”

The lion nearly fell out of his chair after being yelled for, “Yes sir, moving sir!”

Leaning down next to the hare Gabriel spoke quite this time, “you're through, you’ll never work in any media in this town again. I will see to that personally.”

Stan was about to lash back when the large paw of the lion rested on him, “Alright let's go, you're done here.” The lion grabbed Stan roughly by the collar of his shirt and dragged him away and threw him out the main door where he landed hard on the pavement.

He slowly picked himself up and looked in through the glass doors to see Gabriel standing with his arms crossed in the middle of the lobby. He turned and started walking toward his apartment, “They’ll pay, they’ll all pay.” He began racking his brain as for how to proceed when he passed a ZPD recruiting poster, he stopped and walked back staring at it as his rage built. “They are the ones responsible for all of this!” he yelled as he tore and shredded the poster of Nick and Judy smiling in their dress blues. “They will be the first to pay.” He turned back down the road with increased rage knowing just what he had to do.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out, I an on work travel so I didn't get much time to write. Hopefully I will be back on schedule with Friday releases after this.

“Judy please, open the door.” Nick was standing outside their shared room lightly knocking on it with his ear pressed to the door. After reading the article she had rolled up the newspaper and threw it across the room before running out. “Let's face this together, no more running and hiding.”

The door flew open almost causing Nick to fall into the room, he was greeted with a very pissed off bunny. “I’m not hiding Nick, I was packing my bag. Were going back to Zootopia today!” She moved past Nick and went back down to the kitchen leaving Nick a bit stunned, he looked into the room and saw the kits still sleeping peacefully in their cribs. He walked in giving both of them a soft kiss on their foreheads and smiling, “Your mommy is going to kick some serious butt for you two.”

Judy was already in the kitchen talking to her parents when Nick walked in, “Thank you so much for watching them while we take care of this. There should be enough milk for them to last a few days.”

“It's not a problem at all Judy,” Bonnie placed her paw on Judy's quaking shoulder, “Just go and take care of what you need to and get back here though, I know those kits are going to miss you terribly.”

Judy pulled her mom into a hug before turning to Nick, “Ready to go, we're going to leave the kits here with mom and dad while we take care of this once and for all.”

Nick cracked a smile, “Let's go make the world a better place.” That gave Judy a big smile as she shook her head and headed for the door with Nick in tow.

* * *

They sat holding each other on a bench waiting for the train, sitting mostly in silence just enjoying the embrace they gave each other. They tried to pay no attention to the occasional look of disgust thrown their way, this is who they were and nothing was going to change it. “So, what's the plan carrots.”

“I want to go to the Zootopia Times building first and talk to someone there. After that I’m not entirely sure, just flying off the seat of my pants here.” Judy had a faraway look in her eyes, she was trying her best to formulate a plan. “Maybe while we're there we can give them an interview, may not be much coming from us but it could be a start.”

“That could be a start and don’t think so lowly of yourself. You proved a bunny could be a good cop, saved the city, showed them all that size really doesn’t matter, and turned this old fox around on the straight and narrow.” Nick leaned down and gave his bunny a kiss on the head.

Judy smiled at the tingle the kiss sent through her and snuggled more into her fox, “I couldn’t have done it without you, your just as much a part of this as I am.”

“Arriving Zootopia express.” The loudspeaker called the oncoming train.

“Alright let's do this,” Judy hopped up from Nick and grabbed her bag walking over to the train.

The doors opened and the normal stream of mammals came out of the doors, as Judy and Nick walked to the doors a snowshoe hare came running out bumping into Nick without even looking back, “Excuse you.” Nick watched as the hare went quickly to the rental car counter, “Some mammals have no manners,” he shook his head and walked onto the train joining Judy on the observation deck.

“What was that all about?” Judy asked puzzled.

“Nothing, just someone in a hurry and forgetting their manners.” Nick shrugged it off. Apparently, someone else was in a big hurry.

The train ride into Zootopia was uneventful as the two just stared out the windows watching as the rolling green hills of bunny burrow slowly gave way to the deserts of savanna central and the tall skyscrapers of downtown. They got into their car that Judy had left at the station and made their way to the Zootopia Times building. "We probably should give buffalo butt a heads up on what we're doing, I'm pretty sure if we are going to give an interview we may have to clear it by legal first."

"Should we just go to the station or call him?" Judy asked pulling up to a stoplight.

Nick already had his phone in his hand, "Hey Ben is the chief around? Yes, I saw the article, that's what I need to talk to him about as Judy and I are about to go to the paper. Okay, I'll wait." Judy began driving again keeping her current course for the newspaper building. "Chief, Judy and I are on our way to speak with the editor of the Zootopia Times and were wondering if we need someone from legal or PR to be with us. So as long as we speak as private citizens and not as members of the police we good to go, sounds like a plan. Yes, we'll come to your office once were done speaking with them. Talk to you later sir." Nick hung up and stashed the phone back in his pocket and gave a wink to Judy. She just smiled and slowly shook her head as the pulled into the parking garage for the newspaper. They got out of the car and walked towards the front of the building, looking in to see the maze of cubicles and mammals walking around and typing at computers.

"Alright slick, let's see you work your magic again and get us an audience," Judy spoke as she opened the door and they walked into the lobby of the newspaper. The security guard lion looked up from his monitors as his eyes went wide, "Your, your officers Nick and Judy aren't you?"

"Yes we are, and we want to speak with the mammal responsible for allowing that defaming article about us and other inters get printed," Nick said stopping just short of the desk so they could both look into the lion's eyes.

"Just a moment please, I'll see if the editor is still here." The lion quickly grabbed a phone and dialed Lee's number hoping the lynx was still in his office.

"Hello," Lee said irritably.

"Lee, officers Nick and Judy are here." The lion spoke quietly into the phone.

"Wait, THE Nick and Judy are in the lobby. The one's Stan wrote about in his article?" Lee had a shocked tone in his voice.

"Yes, and they want to speak to the mammal responsible for letting that article go to print."

"Shit, I need to call Gabriel then I'll be out in a moment." Lee hung up the phone and quickly dialed Gabriel.

"Sir, Nick and Judy are here to talk about the article." Lee's paw was shaking as he held the phone to his ear.

"I figured they or someone else from the police would come by. Get them, and come to my office." The click on the other end told Lee to get moving as fast as possible to his boss's office.

Lee walked to his door and took a deep breath before opening it and walking to the lobby. Once he entered his nerves started to get to him as he outstretched a paw to the seated fox and rabbit. "Mr. and Mrs. Wilde, my name is Lee and I'm the lead editor. If you would come with me the CEO would like to speak with you."

They were both shocked when they heard that the CEO wanted to speak but outwardly they didn't show it, they politely shook the lynx's paw and then followed him to the elevators. The silence in the elevator was nerve-racking for Lee, he began to wring his paws together not sure of how the outcome of this meeting was going to go. They reached the tenth floor and made the short walk to Gabriel's office, knocking gently before going into the open door.

Gabriel turned around from the window overlooking the city, "Mr. and Mrs. Wilde, its a pleasure to meet you though I wish it was on better terms." He motioned for a couch to one side of the office from the to sit on as he walked over to a small bar in the corner, "May I offer you a drink."

"Some water would be nice," Judy said sitting down.

"I'm fine," Nick spoke quietly but sternly.

"I know why your here and rest assured the mammal responsible has already been taken care of," Gabriel spoke turning around with the water glass from Judy and a small glass of whiskey for himself before sitting in a chair opposite the couple. "He was approved for the piece, however, he violated every standard we have as journalists and was promptly fired."

A small look of satisfaction crept across Nick's face but was quickly replaced with his stern look at the zebra. "Was he fired because he violated your ethics, or because of the subscription drop and outcry over the article."

The zebra choked slightly on his drink but managed to quickly compose himself, "A combination of both. I have a company to look after, Mr. Wilde, and once the phone calls and e-mails came pouring in I read the article myself and realized he had gone too far. Editorial sections have a fair amount of leeway and not too much oversight when it comes to content, they submit for a subject to write on and it gets approved on in a committee. Before it goes to the printer a single editor looks at it for typos, not content. However, this incident is making us re-think our practices for the editorial section."

"Re-think, or actually do something about it. You can re-think all you want but without action, its just words." Nick was getting straight to the point, no beating around this bush this time.

The zebra smiled as he took another sip of his drink, "You know the system well Mr. Wilde I'll give you that. Then you also know change can't happen overnight, especially in a company this big. Changes will be made, but it has to go to the board of directors before anything can really happen." He sat up finishing the rest of his drink setting on the small table in front of them, "You have my word that change WILL happen. But, the question right now is what can we do for you two to show a sign of good faith."

Nick and Judy looked at each other for a moment before Nick tilted his head slightly motioning for Judy to ask what the paper should do. She turned and sat up straight before looking right into the zebra's eyes, "We want a public apology from you. Something on the front page of the paper or a press conference, it needs to be big and come from you directly."

Gabriel pondering the request for a second, "Consider it done and I will do both. I'll have a letter written by me in the paper tomorrow and hold a press conference in the afternoon. We'll make this right I promise." He stood up and reached out his hoof to the couple.

"I'm sure you will," Nick said taking the hoof and shaking it.

"There is nothing wrong with us or our lifestyle, we're going to prove this city that." Judy took the zebras hoof and gave it a solid shake.

"I have no doubt you will, now if you excuse me I have a letter and a press conference to prepare." He walked over to his desk and sat down as Lee escorted the couple from the office.

Once they were outside they fell into a tight embrace feeling the warmth of each other. "That went much better than expected," Judy was all smiles holding onto Nick.

"It's a step in the right direction, but we still have a long road ahead." Nick took Judy's paw as they walked back to their car.

"Yes, but hopefully the road won't be too bumpy," Judy said with a smile leaning and holding onto Nicks' arm.

* * *

"Do you happen to know the Hopps in the area?"

"Are you kidding me? The Hopps are one of the biggest families in the area, you're going to need to be a bit more specific." The brown rabbit looked over the counter of his convenience store at the white hare in front of him.

"Sorry, I'm trying to find Judy Hopps. She's an old friend of mine and I'm trying to surprise her since I'm back in town for a few days."

"Hmmm, well Judy lives in Zootpoia and not our here in Bunnyborrow, although she does visit quite often, I know she's good friends with Gideon Gray. He owns a bakery down the block."

"Thank you." The hare walked out of the store and got back into his rented truck and drive down the street until he found the bakery. Getting out he saw a large red fox leaning down to kiss a black sheep who looked very pregnant.

"I can hold down the store while you're out Gid, no need to hurry too much my love." The sheep held her hoof on the fox's arm causing anger to build in the hare.

"I know you can. I just need to go get more supplies from the Hopps then I'll be back so you can rest up."

"He's a damned inter as well, no wonder he's a friend of Judy. Maybe I'll get lucky if I follow him." He got back into his truck as Gideon pulled out onto the road in his van. The hare waiting a moment before spinning his truck around following the fox. "Yes take me to them." Stan got an evil smile as he followed the pink and white van out of the city.


	7. Chapter 7

Nick and Judy walked up to the doors of precinct one and paused, they were about to start on a path that hopefully would help change the lives of other mammals who had been on the receiving end of the prejudice they had faced. However, if they failed it could mean even more pain and trouble. They looked at each other and without speaking knew that this was the right path no matter how hard it would be, moving back towards the doors nick opened them up letting Judy in and following close behind.

"Nick, Judy. What are you two doing here." They looked in the direction of who was speaking and spotted Clawhauser coming around from behind the front desk and running toward them and dropping to his knees when he reached them. He pulled them into a tight hug sobbing, "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Judy patted him on the arm, "what are you sorry about Ben?"

He released them and looked at the ground, tiny pools forming where the tears fell from his eyes, "It's... it's all my fault. If I hadn't..." he couldn't finish the sentence and brought his paws to his face. The commotion brought the attention of everyone around, the only sound was Clawhauser's crying.

Judy looked over at Nick who sighed, "Ben shared the video I posted which got passed around and lit the fire on this mess."

She looked over at Ben who still has his face buried in his paws, "Ben, it was a mistake. You had no idea it was going to be used in such a way." She walked over and pulled his paws away to take his face in her paws, "I forgive you, Ben."

The cheetah sniffed and gave a weak smile as he stood up, "Thank you, Judy. I'll make this up to you in some way, I promise."

"I'm going to hold you to that spots, now go get yourself cleaned up. Judy and I have a meeting with buffalo butt on how we're going to attack this." Nick took Judy's paw and headed to the stairs to the chief's office as Clawhouser dried his eyes before going to make himself presentable.

"He's really shaken up about this." Judy commented as they reached the fourth floor where the chief's office was, "I don't think I've ever seen him cry so much."

"He feels this entire mess is his fault, but it's not." Nick said dryly with a faraway look in his eyes, "this issue has been simmering for a long time now. Yes, what he did was gave it the fuel it needed to come to a boil but it would have happened soon enough. Look at all the problems in Tundra Town, ten cases of mammals being forcibly removed from establishments, four wrongful evictions, and two beatings. What do they all have in common."

"They were inters." Judy realizing the only reason they weren't physically targeted was their status as cops. But that cheetah at the Green Bean seemed to have no problems so maybe it was only a matter one time.

"Bingo." Nick said as they reached the chief's office, "I've been dealing with it for years as a fox. Never really looked hard at it and just kept moving on. But now how I'm seeing it from the big picture and how it really is affecting other mammals, I just can't sit on the sidelines anymore." He had a determined look on his face as he reached up to knock on the door.

"Nick..." Judy reached up and placed her paw on his arm.

"I don't want anything to happen to you, Nathan, and Sophia." He looked down at Judy his mask starting to crack as tears formed in his eyes, "I would be lost if anything happened to you three. I finally have my family and I'll be damned if anyone tried to take that away from me." He quickly wiped his eyes as his mask fell back into place. He knocked on the door, "I'm going to steal your line, ready to make the world a better place."

Judy smiled but before she could respond the chief bellowed from the inside, "Come in."

They both walked into the office and were surprised to see who was all gathered, "Leo, we expected you to be here but why is the mayor here." Judy said puzzled.

The moose looked down at Nick and Judy, "Good afternoon you two, it's a pleasure to finally meet you. We have a lot to discuss."

* * *

"How long is this fat bastard going to be driving for." Stan was starting to get irritated. He had been following Gideon around for thirty minutes at this point and all he'd seen was nothing but endless fields. They finally pulled down a long dusty road toward a large house and run down looking barn. He had been trying to keep his distance but the length of the road Stan knew he would be seen but kept following. He watched as Gideon pulled his van behind the barn while Stan kept to the front. He got out and slowly walked around the side as he was roughly grabbed by his shirt and held up to the wall of the barn.

"Why are you following me!" Gideon had a fire in his eyes looking at Stan.

Stan tried to squirm away causing Gideon to hold him tighter, "I was told... you would know where... Judy Hopps is." He was getting short of breath making it difficult to get air.

"What do you want with Judy."

"I'm an old... friend, we went... to school together." Stan was now trying to pry open the foxes grip. Until he was roughly thrown to the ground.

"Likely story. I was in Judy's class. I would know if we had a snowshoe hare in our class, so try again." Gideon had his arms crossed and relaxed but Stan could see the Fox was ready to spring on him.

Stan was trying to formulate a plan when Gideon took a step towards him causing Stan to stumble back, "OKAY, okay. I'm a reporter from Zootopia and I'm..."

Stan didn't get a chance to finish as Gideon delivered a strong kick sending the hare rolling on the ground. "You're the bastard who wrote that horrible story about them." He went back to his van as Stan tried to stand up but froze when he heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun cocking. He looked up slowly and saw the barrel pointed at him. "Now get your tail off my property!"

Stan jumped up and moved as fast as he could with the pain in his gut, he backed the truck up turning it around. Once he was pointed down the dirt road he got brave and stuck his head out yelling, "You'll get yours as well you damn inter!" He pulled his head back into the truck just in time for his side mirror to explode into pieces. He punched the gas and looking in the review mirror to see Gideon aiming and firing again. He hit the main road and turned down the way they had come down. "Fucking fox is crazy." He looked at where the mirror used to be, "Damn now how the hell am I going to explain that to the rental agency, fuck." He drove around hopelessly lost for another hour until he saw a glimmer of hope, a sign saying Hopps Fresh Produce pointing down an upcoming road. A wicked smile grew on his face as he turned down the road. The produce stand soon came into view, he parked the truck on the opposite side of the road trying to come up with a plan as he watched other rabbits buying produce from the stand. Soon a blue pickup truck came into view from further down the road and stopped at the stand. Two bunnies got out but it was what they were carrying in their arms that got Stan's blood boiling. Both bunnies were holding onto the very things that got him fired, "Those damned creatures. They are the reason I lost my job, they are the reason that damned fox shot at me, they are the cause of all of this! I'll fix it all in one go." He shifted the truck into drive and pulled back into the road before hitting the gas with all his might.

* * *

"You want us to be the face of the movement, but why us?" Judy just wanted to get things progressing, not be front and center of it all.

"I know it seems like you two are always front and center of major things going on in the city but you two are the most well known interspecies couples. Everyone knows who you are, and what you've done for the city over and over again now. You two are the perfect candidates to move this forward." The mayor was sitting across from them laying out how he envisioned the campaign going.

"I just don't know, I feel our kits and us have been in the spotlight too much already. I know I'm to blame for that but I really don't want to expose them anymore." Nick was just as apprehensive as Judy.

"We need someone, or something, to be the catalyst for this. With as much popularity you two have with the general public you would be perfect for it." The mayor was trying his best to get them to his side especially with it being an election year this would help to put him over the top for re-election.

"Mayor Bullwinkle, this is a lot to put on them after everything that's happened to them. Maybe we should give them some time to go over all this. Knowing Judy she also wouldn't want to be pulled off the force for the length of time it's going to take to get things rolling." Bogo also wanted to see the plan succeed but he also needed to look out for the well-being of his subordinates.

"I have to agree with Bogo," Leo finally spoke up, "legally we still need to find out how best to go about this. If we keep them on normal duty status while they are attending rallies and meetings then it would come across that the ZPD full endorses interspecies relationship. Don't get me wrong, I know everyone in this room does support it but we have to be 'political' about it."

Bullwinkle rose from his seat, "I understand." He turned to Nick and Judy, "talk it over and get back to me in a few days, please. I'll start getting things lined up but I need an answer soon." He excused himself and left the other mammals in silence.

Judy reached up and pulled on her ears in front of her face in frustration, "Arrrg. What are we going to do, I don't want to subject the kits to any more scrutiny, but at the same time someone needs to stand up."

Nick put a comforting paw on her shoulder, "I know Judy I feel the same way. Maybe there could be some middle ground where we can be involved but leave out kits out of it."

Leo rubbed his muzzle thinking, "Maybe finding two or three more couples and have a core group instead of a figurehead to the movement. But we still need to figure out legally how we can keep you two on the payroll while you do this."

"What about an administrative leave of absence, with pay?" Bogo raised the question to Leo.

"Possibly, but we still need to..." Leo was interrupted by Judy's cell phone ringing.

"Hey mom, it's kind of a bad time... what happened!? Oh, my, God." The phone slipped from Judy's paw hitting the floor with Bonnie on the to her end, "Judy, Judy?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know two chapters in the matter of a few days, well I didn't want to leave on such a big cliffhanger so here is the next chapter. However, have some tissues handy and please.... don't hate me.

"Thank you, Gideon, if we see him we'll be sure to send him packing as well. Yes, we want to protect them too so we appreciate the warning. Goodbye." Bonnie hung up the phone and looked down at the two kits playing in their car seats as the truck bounced down the family dirt road.

"So that bastard actually thought he could come sneaking around looking for Nick and Judy. Maybe I should have grabbed my shotgun to and carry it around." Stu glared out the windshield as he spoke gripping the steering wheel tight.

"It will be okay Stu. We are here to protect them, not to mention all of the other bunnies in the burrow." Bonnie smiled as she watched Nathan pass a toy to Sophia who giggled and waved it around. "Who knows, maybe getting shot at by Gideon scared him off for good anyway."

"I just don't know. Some mammals are too stupid or hard headed to give up, especially reporters. I swear if he does try to hurt them they won't ever find his body." Stu's paws had started to turn white with how hard he was gripping the steering wheel.

Bonnie put her own paw on his and gave a comforting smile to him knowing he was telling the truth. Stu relaxed his grip and smiled back at Bonnie as he turned onto the main road to their produce stand. Soon they pulled up next to the stand and took the kits from their seats to let them play with the other bunny kits.

"Hey mom and dad did you bring the stuff I asked for, we're almost completely out now." Susan, one of Judy's littermates was currently running the stand.

"Yep, got them in the back of the truck. Hey, have you seen a snowshoe hare or pickup truck with a missing..." Stu stopped talking as the sound of tires squealing took everyone's attention. Just down the road, a white pickup truck sent smoke from its back tires as they spun out causing the truck to lose some control before turning directly at the stand.

"RUN!" Stu yelled before grabbing Bonnie and diving for their truck making sure to hold Nathan tightly to him as Bonnie did the same with Sophia. Bunnies scattered everywhere as the truck smashed into the stand sending wood and produce everywhere before hitting the side of Stu's truck. The collisions brought the vehicle to a stop before shortly backing up and speeding off sending rocks, dirt, and dust everywhere before turning back down the road it came.

Stu looked down at his wife and yelled over the ringing in his ears, "Bonnie, Bonnie are you alright!"

"Yes Stu, the kits!" Bonnie yelled her eyes going wide in terror.

They both looked in their arms and were relieved to see both kits in their arms crying but unhurt.

"Susan!"

Stu gave Nathan to Bonnie as he jumped up and looked over the truck bed, the scene creating a mixture of emotions in the old rabbit. He ran around the truck to see the entire stand in pieces with bunnies helping each other up. The sight of his son-in-law John digging through the rubble tore at his chest.

"Susan, Susan answer me." Stu ran over and begun helping to dig. "Oh god no. Please, no. No no NO!" Stu looked over at John and his heart sank, Susan's chocolate brown eyes were wide open in terror and frozen that way. He went over and placed a paw on Johns' shoulder, trying to comfort him, and himself.

"No, she can't be gone. Susan, no..." John completely broke down crying cradling Susan in his arms. Stu got up and looked over to see Bonnie walking over, he went over to her quickly shaking his head.

"Don't bring the kits over there, I don't want them to see that." He looked down at the kits who had stopped crying and were just sitting still in Bonnie's arms. Anger welling up inside him, "I'm going after him, call the sheriff!" Stu ran over to the truck but the driver's door was pinned closed, he ran around and climbed through the passenger door of the truck trying to get it to life but it wouldn't start. He began pounding the steering wheel as Bonnie walked over, looking into her eyes he finally lost it and began crying. "I cant let him get away, Bonnie. He took Susan from us and has to pay!" He openly wept before finally reaching for his phone, "I'm calling the other families, he wont make it out of Bunnyburrow."

* * *

"What about an administrative leave of absence, with pay?" Bogo raised the question to Leo.

"Possibly, but we still need to..." Leo was interrupted by Judy's cell phone ringing.

"Hey mom, it's kind of a bad time…" Judy began before being interrupted by her mom.

"Judy someone just attacked us!" Bonnie yelled into the phone.

"What happened." Judy's face had a look of dread on it as she looked up at Nick. The entire room had gone completely silent with the rabbit's reaction.

"They drove their truck through our stand. Your kits are okay but Susan…" Judy could hear her mom start to lose it and other crying in the background, "Susan couldn't get out in time. She got pinned in the stand… oh god. Judy, she's dead! Someone killed Susan!"

"Oh, my, God." The phone slipped from Judy's paw crashing to the floor, her amethyst eyes welling with tears as she completely broke down in the chair. Nick was immediately by her side and picked up the phone.

"Judy, Judy?" Nick could hear Bonnie on the other end as he brought it to his ear.

"Bonnie, whats going on! Is something wrong with Nathan and Sophia?" Nick asked while cradling the devastated Judy.

"Nick! No, they are alright. But, Judy's littermate Susan was just… killed when someone drove their truck into our stand trying to get at us." Bonnie was having a hard time keeping it together as Nick could hear sirens in the background approaching.

"How do you know they were trying to attack you?" Nick was hoping this was just a terrible accident and not someone targeting them.

"Gideon called us, saying some hare from Zootopia was looking for you two. He scared him off but the truck that crashed into the stand was the same one that he was driving."

"We'll be on the first train back, we'll get him and make him pay!" Nick's fire in his eyes and voice didn't go unnoticed by Bogo and Leo who shared a concerned look between them. Bogo made a motion with his head toward the door which Leo understood leaving the two small mammals alone in the room.

"The sheriff, Stu, and countless others are already looking for him. Right now all I need you to do it take care of Judy, she and Susan were always very close. She was one of the few bunnies who actually pushed Judy to go through with her dream of becoming an officer. She needs you right now, not to come down here right now. Take care of her, please." Bonnie abruptly ended the call leaving Nick with the broken down Judy in his arms.

He just held her while she cried knowing nothing he could say right now would help calm her. When the tears finally slowed she pulled her face from Nicks' chest looking absolutely crushed, "It's… my… fault..."

"Judy don't even try to say that." Nick was trying to be comforting.

"BUT IT IS NICK! If we didn't go home, if we didn't have kits, if I had never left home…" Judy broke down again

Nick lifted Judy's face to look right into her eyes, "Don't, for one second, think that you are the cause of all this. It's the actions of a sick and twisted individual, not yours, that has caused all this. I'm sure your sister would not want you putting all the blame on yourself."

"But…" Judy tried to speak before Nick gentle put a paw to her mouth.

"No," Nick gently shook his head, "I don't want to hear you blaming yourself, right now all you need to do is grieve. You lost your sister, I can't even begin to understand what you're going through. But, I'm here for you. Lets just got home and forget everything going on right now."

Judy wiped her eyes and gave a weak smile, "No, I want to go to the gardens. Sitting at home won't help, I want to go the gardens and just… walk."

Nick stood up and took Judy's paw, "Ok, Judy. Let's go."

The walked to the door and were stopped when it opened and Bogo walked in and knelt down. His normally stern face replaced with the kind and gentle look he had when Judy had quit the force "I'm so sorry Judy." He held out his large arms and took Judy into a deep embrace. "you're already on two weeks leave, but take longer if you need it. I'll speak with the mayor on the situation and what your decision is on the interspecies issue." He stood up and looked down at Nick, "Wilde, I don't want you to do anything rash. If you leave the city I want to know about it. If you don't let me know consider your badge on my desk." The large buffalo had his normal stern look back on his face.

Nick just nodded as Bogo stepped to the side letting the couple walk by. Leo walked into the office as Bogo shut the door shaking his head, "When is life finally going to stop knocking those two down."

"They always seem to bounce back each time it does though." Leo went to the chiefs cupboard pulling out two glasses and a bottle of brandy.

Bogo took a seat at his desk, taking off his glasses pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, "I know. But, I wonder what toll it's taking on them. I've seen more experienced cops crack under less strain."

Leo poured them both a drink, "I know. But, they are two of the toughest we've had. We just need to be there for them and give them the best options available to make sure they don't crack. Or, be around to pick up the pieces."

"I really hope it doesn't come to that," Bogo said sadly raising the glass to his lips.

* * *

Stan pulled the truck over a few miles down the road after getting tired of batting away the airbag that had deployed when he hit the other truck. He took out a knife and cut the fabric away finally giving him a clear view over the steering wheel. He looked at the knife in his paw slowly turning it over watching it glint in the sunlight. Something had snapped in his the brain the moment the truck hit the produce stand, he had locked onto the golden doe's eye and her realization of what was about to happen. But he didn't care, "Just a small casualty in the cleansing. Those two kits met their end, soon their parents, and then any creature who dares stand in my way." He embedded the knife into the dashboard as he took off down the road again with his sights set on Bunnyburrow. "They are all filth. They all deserve to die, and I'm just the mammal to do it." Stan had a wicked smile on his face as he pulled into town knowing exactly where he needed to go next. He found himself a quiet alleyway across from his intended target, all he had to do was wait.

* * *

"Oh no, I can't believe someone would do something like that. Does Judy know yet? She does, well let her know she can always call me if she needs someone to talk to, and let us know if there is anything we can do to help. Goodbye Bonnie." Sharla hung up the phone and wiped away the tears that had formed in her eyes. Gideon walked over and hugged his wife close, she pulled back slightly looking up at him, "that could have been you Gid, please be more careful next time and just call the cops if you believe someone is following you."

Gideon pulled her in tightly again, "Don't you worry about that. There won't be a next time, if the sheriff doesn't find him I'm fairly sure the mob that has formed will. He won't last long if they get their paws on him. Now let's finish closing down and get home, tomorrow we'll go over to the Hopps and see if there is anything we can do for them."

Sharla pulled Gideon down for a kiss, "Okay Gid, well bake something nice for them as a small condolence." She went into the back room to finish the day's paperwork as Gideon cleaned up the front of the store, wiping every table, mopping the floor, and cleaning all the display cases. He took great pride in his bakery, not just in the goods served but the way it looked. He wanted to show all of Bunnyburrow how much he had changed, and it showed in the dedication he put into the bakery, and his marriage. He turned off the lights and paused looking out over the dark bakery, his mind going to the loss the Hopps had sustained earlier in the day but quickly shifted back to Sharla and that in a few days he would have his own kits to look out for. Hoping that hare would be caught quickly and blaming himself for missing on the first shot, "If only I had a better aim." He said quietly to himself.

"What was that Gid?" Sharla had come out of the back room trying to put on her coat but having difficulty with the rather large bump she now had.

Gideon smiled and chuckled as we walked over had helped Sharla put her coat on, "Nothing hun, just talking to myself. I know the perfect thing to make the Hopps." He put his large paw over her shoulder as they walked out of the bakery and to the van he had parked out front.

Gideon picked Sharla up and placed her in the seat to her laughing and protesting, "Gid, stop. I'm pregnant, not handicapped."

He closed the door and kissed her through the open window, "I know, but the doctor told you to take it easy since you can go into labor any day now. Let me spoil you a bit more before I spoil the kits rotten."

"I guess I can allow that you big lug," Sharla said with a smile as Gideon walked around to the driver's side, pulling himself in and beginning the drive home.

"I just can't imagine what they are going through, I know death is 'common' in rabbit families but to have someone taken in that way." Gideon shook his head trying to get the image out of his head as they pulled up to a red light.

Sharla tried to reach over to comfort her husband but couldn't reach, so she removed her seatbelt so she could lean over and place a paw on his arm, "It'll be okay Gid, the Hopps are a strong family and with all their friends around here they'll eventually recover."

Gideon looked over at Sharla and smiled before the honking of a car behind him brought his attention to the green light. He looked up and started to drive before looking back at her, "You really should put your seatbelt back on you never know..." but he never got to finish the sentence as a pair of bright headlights shone through the passenger window.

* * *

The long wait was finally over, Stan could see the fox and sheep getting into the pink van. He was spinning the knife in his hand again before slamming it back into the dash in front of him, "It's your turn now." He said wickedly as he slowly eased out of the alleyway and onto the main road intentionally keeping his headlights off. He watched as they stopped at the red light and waited for it to turn green. Once it did he hit his high beams to distract the fox and again pressed the gas peddle as hard as he could. As he expected the fox looked up in shock and didn't take off as he slammed into the passenger side of the van. The sound of crunching metal became deafening to the rabbit but the most surprising thing was getting propelled from his seat. In that split second, Stan realized he had forgotten to do one critical thing, buckle up his own seatbelt. With the airbag already deployed and cut away nothing was in the way of him and the windshield, except the knife and it to become dislodged during the initial hit. There was nothing to prevent it from ramming into his eye as he smashed through the windshield and into the side of the van as the two vehicles crushed together. The pain he felt was excruciating but brief as his neck snapped when it collided with the side of the van.

* * *

Gideon was in a daze. He could hear muffled voices and beeping but the thing that stuck out was the pain he felt all over. He tried to remember what was going on when his eye suddenly snapped open and screamed, "Sharla!"

He tried to sit up but was forced back down onto the gurney, "Take it easy you've been in a serious car accident and we don't want you moving right now. You have a broken arm and were not sure about your back and neck yet."

He looked up and saw an elk doctor with his hoof pressing him back down, "But my wife, she was in the passenger seat. Is she alright?"

Gideon saw a flash of fear in the doctors face, "I'm sorry sir, she didn't make it."

"But..." the slow horror dawning on him, "she was pregnant! What about the kits!"

A tear formed in the elk's eye, "We did everything we could, only one of them survived and were not sure if she will make it through the night. We have her down in the pediatric intensive care ward."

Gideon didn't even try to hold back the tears, "I, I want to see... her."

"Once your X-rays come back and I know you don't have any spinal issues I'll have a nurse wheel you down to see her, but again she's in intensive care. You won't be able to hold her yet." The doctor was fighting back his own tears.

Gideon just laid back down and wept for his lost love and kits. The doctor came back shortly with a wheelchair and the news that his spine was clear of injury. He helped the fox get into the chair and brought him down to the intensive care ward. He wheeled him beside the tiny chamber that held his kit and locked the wheels in pace and handed him a page button, "Your free to stay here as long as you want, I'll be sure to let the nurses know. If you need anything press this button." The elk left the room leaving the grieving father alone.

Gideon reached his paw inside the enclosure and lightly touched the kits tiny paw. She had a majority of fox features but with a smaller muzzle and short, curly, jet black fur. The large fox couldn't help himself and openly wailed as his kit was hooked up to all manner of machines fighting for her tiny life, "Please. Don't leave me as well. I can't lose you too... Sharla."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone and welcome back. Thank you for the messages and review for the last chapter. I know, I'm an evil person and have apparently lost some readers because of the dark turn of that chapter. Well, I'm sorry to say real life isn't that pretty and that chapter is tame compared to some of the other stories I've read. Either way it hasn't deterred my writing and I will continue to write and keep this story up to date. With that enjoy this chapter and again please like, comment, and share it really does keep pushing me to keep writing.

“Judy, they're ready for us.” Nick poked his head in on his wife. She was sitting on a small sofa lightly kicking her feet while wringing her paws together crushing the tissue she held. She looked up slowly trying to give a small smile to Nick.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before slowly letting it out and hopping down and flattening out her dress. She looked herself over and adjusted the golden rose she had pinned on. “Okay, Nick. Let's do this.” She said before walking over giving him a light hug.

They walked paw in paw down the dimly lit corridor, other mammals moving to the side to give them room even in their own haste. They made the short walk to the doors saying stage A when Judy stopped. Nick has his paw on the door but wasn’t going to open it until she was ready, not with everything she had gone through the past week. Judy put her paw on the door as well and looked up at Him, “I’m ready Nick. We’re doing this for Susan... Shara... James... Daphnie...” a tear slowly fell from her eye, she closed her eyes tight and shook her head. “No more tears. I’ve cried enough, I won’t let their memory be tragic.” She opened her eye back up again this time free of tears and with fire in them, “their memory will be the spark that changes everything.”

Nick smiled warmly at her, “Yes it will, Judy. Now, our audience is waiting.” Judy returned the smile and they both pushed on the doors revealing the ZNN soundstage. Eight chairs were placed facing the cameras and a small audience in the stands behind the cameras. Chief Bogo, Mayor Sam Bullwinkle, Assistant Mayor Dean Rocky, Bonnie and Stu Hopps, and Gideon Grey were all standing around the chairs. Bonnie was giving Gideon a tight hug, “Thank you, Bonnie. You two have been such a big help these past few days. It’s been... hard. Home reminds me too much of Sharla right now.” 

“It’s no problem at all Gideon. Our home is your home for as long as you need it.” Bonnie reached up and placed a paw on the side of Gideon’s face giving a warm smile. 

“Thank you. I just don’t want to feel like I’m a burden.” Gideon tried to return the smile but faltered as his eyes started to tear up again.

“You’ll never be a burden at the burrow,” the three turned to see Nick and Judy walking up, “the burrow is so big you’ll get lost if you're not careful.” 

Gideon gave a slight chuckle, “Actually the first night I did. I couldn’t sleep so I just walked around all night until I got hopelessly lost.”

Stu gave a small laugh, “That you were. We found him in one of the lower den rooms curled up on a couch.”

“Yeah, I found that place and from the sound of it, no one was nearby. I climbed onto the couch and finally lost it.” Everyone became very quiet, “Everything I had been holding in finally came out and I cried myself to sleep that night.”

Judy went over to Gideon and gave him a tight hug, “I did the same thing after Nick and I had gotten back from the gardens that day. Everything was just a blur I really couldn’t understand what was all going on. We sat on the couch just holding each other when it finally hit, I couldn’t stop crying until Nick finally carried me to bed.”

All the mammals got quite again as Gideon and Judy released their embrace, the shared pain held in their eyes as they looked at each other. 

“Excuse me,” Everyone looked over to see a sharply dressed snow leopard walking up with a tablet in her paws, “we are a few minutes away from beginning the show. Can everyone please take their seats.”

Each of the mammals sat down as the audience quieted down and other mammals got behind all the cameras on the stage. Red, quite now, signs lit up above the audience, introduction music for the show began to play, and a small red light came on a camera pointed right at the host. “Good evening Zootopia, we are here at the ZNN studios to bring you a special report on the recent attacks on interspecies couples both within the city and the surrounding area. We have with us representatives from the ZPD, the mayors office, and citizens directly affected by recent tragic events.” As she spoke lights came on different cameras pointed at everyone on stage, televisions across the city showed the faces of the mammals seated, even the large display in the city center that had Gazelle greeting mammals to the city was showing the special. “Thank you, everyone, for being here tonight, I know the last few days have been very difficult for you all so I am greatly pleased to have you all here with us tonight.”

There were quiet mumblings of thank you’s but it was mayor Bullwinkle who spoke out, “It is us who should be thanking you, Clair. The past few weeks have been very troubling with all the anti-interspecies problems plaguing the city. We’ve had mammals forcibly removed from homes, publicly humiliated, physically assaulted, and worse. My office has been getting phone calls and e-mails asking me what we are going to do about it. The sad part is the numbers have been equal for both sides.” Sam closed his eye and gently shook his head remembering all the hate calls coming to his office.

“Both sides, how do you mean?” Clair asked while he paused.

Sam looked up at Clair, “I’ve gotten calls from the mammals who were the victims of the prejudice. They first called the ZPD but there was nothing criminal done to them, so they called my office asking what I was going to do about it. On the other side, I get calls asking when I was going to finally enact some laws or ordinances to prevent any interspecies couple from even living in the city.”

“Your talking about laws passed years ago preventing same-sex couples from getting work benefits, adopting, getting married, even been seen in public together.” Clair was swiping at her tablet pulling up the old laws and having them display on a few tvs around the room.

Sam got a fire in his eyes, “Yes. Certain mammals wanted me to enact laws just like those while forgetting I’m the one who got those laws removed. In a decent society, there is no need for anything like that. Any mammal should be able to love whoever they want regardless of gender or species.” This caused a loud cheer to come from the audience. However, a few remarks could be heard through the cheering of mammals not thrilled with the mayors choice to remove the old laws.

Dean got a large smile on his face from all the cheering, “My husband and I thank you every day for removing those laws, Sam.” The moose looked down at his closest friend and smiled before the flying squirrel turned to the host and continued, “That is why when the anti-interspecies story was published in the Zootopia Times the mayor and I knew something needed to be done about it. We sat down and began writing a bill to bring to the city council prevent the discrimination of interspecies couples.” This got a very loud response from the audience that took several minutes to quite down.

After the audience finally settled down Clair then spoke to Bogo, “That definitely would be a step in the right direction. But, I have to ask Chief Bogo how would something like this be enforced? Even now its difficult to prove any kind of discrimination, unless it's blatantly overt.”

“Yes, anything but overt discrimination is very difficult to prove and honestly unless it is overt it becomes more of a civil than a police matter where the lawyers need to step in. However, we will work with local businesses and the general public to bring to light things that are prejudicial to hopefully prevent it before it happens. We won't be able to change every mammal's mind but hopefully, we can change most and prevent the tragedies of last week from happening again.” The room got uncomfortably quite after Bogo’s statement, at that point the entire city had heard about the murders that happened in Bunnyburrow. 

A loud sniff broke the silence as everyone looked over at Gideon Grey who was wiping his eyes with a tissue. “Mr. Grey is there anything you would like to add,” Clair asked quietly.

Gideon wiped his eyes one last time before looking at the leopard, “One mammal changed my whole life, Sharla. I was not a very nice fox growing up.” He looked over at Judy sitting next to him, she put a comforting paw on his big one trying to give him extra strength. “I was a bully and treated other mammals like they were beneath me. Sharla, she saw the real me and helped to make me a better mammal. When we got married it was the best day of my life right next to the day we found out she was pregnant. Then, another mammal decided to change my life again…” He took a deep breath slowly letting it out, “Stan. He took away my Sharla. He also took away two of the kits she was carrying. One survived, who I named Sharla and will hopefully be leaving the NICU next week.” A warm smile slowly came across Gideon’s muzzle as a round of applause cause from the audience. “Losing them all was so difficult, I lost someone who brought out the best in me. Now, I’m going to fight to make sure no-one else has to go through what I did and to make sure my daughter has a safe world to grow up in.”

More applause erupted leading to Clair trying and cut in, “Thank you, Mr. Grey. We need to take a short break, but when we come back we’ll be speaking with the two mammals who were at the center of the newspaper controversy, Judy, and Nick Wilde. We’ll be right…”

“Stan didn’t do enough!” An outburst from the audience brought a shocked reaction to everyone. Lights went up on the audience as the cameras panned to find the source of the voice. A red panda stood up, “Yeah I said it. That hare only began what should have happened a long time ago. Mammals should stay within their own species!” 

“Security, remove that panda. I won't take that kind of talk in here with these mammals present.” Clair was standing visibly shaking with rage.

“No.” All eyes turned to Judy who stood up from her chair, a single camera spinning around locking on her as she began to walk forward. 

The TV control room was going crazy, “Sir what do we do, we were supposed to be on a commercial break.”“Are you kidding me, keep this live damn it! Don’t you dare go to commercial. Camera A stay on Judy, Camera B keep on that panda, C and D stay with Clair and the group to get reaction shots and get the damn audience mics turned up, I don’t want to miss anything.”

The whole room was quiet as Judy moved slowly past Clair and toward the panda in the audience who grew a bit nervous with the bunny walking toward him, he started looking around to try and find an escape route. “This mammal has a reason for what he said. It’s not a popular opinion and it hurts like hell. But, there has to be a reason for it.” She was next to the panda when she looked at him, “So what is it, what is the reason.”

The panda looked startled at Judy with his ears laying flat on his head, “It’s, it’s just not right. It’s completely unnatural! There's a reason there are so many different mammals. To start mixing specials would not be natural.”

Judy looked at the panda and could see the nerves started to disappear as he talked, “Okay, I can see why you would think that. Rabbits and foxes were mortal enemies in the past.”

The panda got more courage visibly easing up and letting his ears come off his head, ”Exactly! He could easily kill you.”

Judy looked back down at Nick and begun rubbing her neck lowering her ears, “You know I never thought of it that way. If he had closed his jaws a little tighter at the museum he could have easily bit into my jugular causing me to bleed out.”

Nick had a shocked look on his face and was about to speak when he noticed a wink come from Judy and a sly smile grew on his face.

The panda had grown very confident and placed a paw on Judy's shoulder while pointing at Nick, “See look at that! He probably wanted to do it as well, see that smile he has.”

“Yes I see it and I can see why you would then think us being together would be completely unnatural.” She turned back to look at the panda, this time a fierceness had grown in her eyes and her ears stood erect as she stared into his, “If you hate things that are unnatural then why are you wearing clothes then. Go ahead take them off.” 

He removed his paw from Judy’s should and stammered, “What!?”

Judy took a step closer, “You heard me, take them off. Clothes aren’t natural, we ran around naked before evolving into a decent society so get rid of them.” The panda just stared blankly at Judy as she continued. “I’m going to take it you live in a house, have a job, probably drive too. Well give it all up as well, they are all completely unnatural.”

“Get him carrots,” Nick said under his breath leaning back into his chair, everyone on the stage had huge smiles on their faces as Judy went after the spiciest mammal.

“But, but that's different. We’re evolved now, those are normal every day things now.” The panda had backed up and fallen into his chair with Judy towering over him as he sunk into it.

“Exactly! They are normal occurrences because we have evolved. We live in houses instead of dens or in the open, we drive cars and ride trains instead of walking everywhere, we get jobs to pay for food instead of scavenging or killing each other to eat. Nick and I have two beautiful kits together because we have evolved to be with whoever we want to be with and love whoever we want to.” She started to walk back to her seat with all the mammals on their paws clapping before turning back towards looking at the panda, “I just have one last question, do us or any other interspecies couple have any impact on your own life.” The panda just stared as his own paws shaking his head to embarrassed to speak anymore, “I didn’t think so.” She turned around and walked back to her seat to the sound of applause as every other mammal gave Judy a standing ovation.

Nick took her into a tight embrace as she reached the stage, “There's the Judy I know. Welcome back, my love.” Judy looked up and grabbed each side of Nicks muzzle and pulled him slowly lowering it to her own enjoying a tender kiss.

“Well everyone we are overdue for a commercial break so when we come back we’ll have more insight into the lives of all these mammals who have been touched by this topic.” Clair looked into the camera with a huge smile on her face. All the TV’s showed Nick and Judy kissing lost in their own small world as mammals around them clapped in support of the couple.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, a bit of writers block and coming back from a month in San Diego spending time with the family made for a last posting.

Gideon turned off the main road and down the dirt driveway leading to the Hopps farm, doing his best to avoid the ruts and holes in the road. Normally he would just drive down the road bouncing along without a care in the world but today he had precious cargo in his van. Sharla was released from the hospital and sleeping soundly in the car seat next to him. The van rocked from a hole he couldn't miss and he looked down to see Sharla lightly stir in her seat but stayed sleeping. A smile grew across his muzzle seeing his beautiful daughter sleeping without a care in the world. Another bump brought his attention back to the road as the farmhouse came into view with a big banner strung across the front welcoming Sharla home. He could see Bonnie and Stu waiting on the porch as a gaggle of other bunnies milled about the grass eagerly waiting for his arrival. Stu was the first to see the van and pointed to it as all the other bunnies looking and started yelling and waiving as Gideon pulled up front.

He stepped out from the van getting swarmed by little bunnies as a tear fell from his eye seeing the excitement their arrival caused, "Thank yall for the warm welcome."He slowly worked his way to the now fixed passenger door of the van with multiple questions being asked from the young ones.

"Wheres the kit?"

"Is she more fox or sheep?"

"Is she big like you Gideon?"

"What color is her fur?"

"Does she have a big bushy tail like you?"

Gideon had a big smile as he finally reached the door and heard Bonnie call from the porch,"You little ones leave Mr. Gideon alone, step back so he doesn't trip or your all going to your rooms and not seeing the kit."

They all took a step back and quieted down not wanting to test their mother's threat."It's alright Bonnie if I do trip there's plenty of cushion on me to pad her." Everyone around had a good laugh at the portly fox making fun of himself. He reached in and unhooked little Sharla from her car seat, her aqua eyes slowly opening up and looking around. He cradled her in one arm as he slung a diaper bag over his other shoulder and walked into the crowd of bunnies towards the house.

"She's so tiny."

"Look at all that black curly fur."

"Why does her muzzle look all scrunched up?"

The three adults just smiled at all the questions the kits had, they couldn't help the curiosity of youth. Gideon stopped at the stairs of the porch where Bonnie and Stu were standing on and turned his arm out slightly so they could get a better look.

"She's beautiful Gideon, just look at those clear blue eyes and all that curly fur." She reached out her paws slightly, "May I?"

Gideon was beaming with joy and let Bonnie take Sharla, her little eyes locked onto Bonnie's.

Stu placed a paw on Gideon's shoulder, "You did good Gid, however you really should get a vehicle with a backseat for her to ride in safely."

"Says the mammal who put both his grandkits on the bench seat of a pickup truck," Gideon smirked at Stu.

"Okay you got me, but it's the most reliable vehicle we have. You, on the other hand, have a perfectly good car to carry that beauty around in."

"Sharla's car." Gideon suddenly lost his smile and looked down at the ground.

Stu's eyes went wide, "I'm sorry Gideon. I didn't mean to.."

"It's okay Stu, I know..." Gideon looked back up at Stu, his smile was back but the hurt was still in his eyes. "I should go home, take little Sharla there but it's just so difficult."

Bonnie walked over and placed a paw on his shoulder, "We understand Gideon, and we meant what we said about however long you need to stay here you can. Besides it will work out well, we can watch little Sharla while you tend to the bakery."

"Well, Travis is handling the store while I'm taking care of all this." He looked down at Sharla who was smiling at him. "I do want to bring her home and to meet her mother and brothers... I just don't know when the right time will be."

"You'll know, and so will she." Bonnie handed Sharla back to Gideon who hugged her tight.

"Well, little one let's bring you inside and get some food in you." The three mammals all smiled and walked into the house followed by several little bunnies all calling out after them.

"When do I get to hold her?"

"Can I help feed her?"

"What's that smell?"

"We are not the one with mixed up views, we are going to be the new norm amongst mammal kind." A loud cheer went up from the crowd around the stage. "No one will be able to hold our feelings for another mammal against us ever again. All the mammals who were wrongly fired, kicked out of their homes, or..." the beaver turned and looked at Nick and Judy holding hands behind him, they both gave him a smile and nod to continue. "Physically attacked will be charged for their actions. Never again will mammals have to look over their shoulders in fear. Never again will a wife kiss her husband goodbye wondering if he will come home that night. Fear and loss will be a thing of the past! The mayor shares our views and now it's up to us to make sure our voice is heard loud and strong through the city. We can make a change, we WILL make a change! In the words of Judy Hopps, are you ready to make the world a better place!" The crowd, now numbering in the hundreds filling town center, cried out a loud yes vibrating the windows of the surrounding buildings.

Judy held Nick tightly and looked out over the crowd, "Look at that Nick, look at all the support there is for this."

"You got that right carrots, it's just sad that it took a tragedy for mammals to come out and support our way of life though."

"Yes it is, but their here now so we better make the best of it."

"Ladies and gentlemammal's, let me now introduce a pair of mammals who need no introduction, Judy and Nick Wilde!" They walked forward paw in paw and raised them to the sky as they reached the edge of the stage. The crowd got louder as they stood at the edge. Both smiling as they looked out at everyone gathered.

"Thank you, everyone." Judy had to shout into the microphone to be heard. "Thank you for coming out and showing your support today. The past few weeks have been very difficult but seeing so many of you out here today makes it a bit easier to deal with."

Several loud shouts of encouragement caused Judy to stop talking and look at the crowd again and paused seeing a group of mammals making their way through the crowd. She looked up at Nick who was staring intently at the same group. Nicks' eyes shot wide open as shouts brought Judy's attention back to the crowd.

The group had made its way close to the stage and had pulled out signs against interspecies couples and were shouting remarks against them. Mammals near them stepped back creating a tight ring around the group of five.

"It's wrong and against nature for mixed couples to exist. See the truth and stop all this nonsense." A badger was shouting out with the other repeating him.

"You're in the wrong place to try and pull this crap." A tiger stepped up to the group, "just leave now and no one will get hurt."

"Oh a threat now, see what your evil ways have done. Warped your mind to think violence is the only way." The badger stepped right up to the tiger, "We are free to assemble anywhere we want on public land. You don't like it, make me move."

The tiger moved quickly bringing his fist around catching the badger in the jaw and breaking it. The tiger was on top of the badger following him to the ground, even though he was unconscious before he hit the ground the tiger continually pummeled him.

"Mammals like you only understand pain, let me give you a lesson." The other protesters were held back from getting near them, most for their own protection from the enraged tiger.

Nick and Judy saw as the tiger beat the defunctness badger, they looked at each other and instantly knew what they had to do. Jumping down from the stage they made their way to the ring of mammals, dodging between the legs of others trying to get close. Judy being smaller and quicker made it to the tightly packed ring first. The tiger was raising his fist again when she literally sprung into action, using the same technique in training she catapulted herself at the tiger and when he feet touched his paw she kicked out with all her might. The action causing the tigers own paw to collide with his head, sending him to the ground and rolling towards the edge of the ring with Judy landing next to the downed badger.

The tiger shook his head and pushed up on his unsteady arms looking over at Judy, "Why would you do that, I was trying to defend you!" He started to push himself up more to stand up when a smaller paw landed on his back forcing his tired arms to give out.

"I would just stay down if I were you." The tiger looked behind him to see Nick standing with one foot paw on his back. "Your in enough trouble as it is, don't make it worse by assaulting a police officer." Shouts could be heard as the on-duty ZPD officers, assigned to the rally, moved in.

"I don't get it, why would you defend them when they hate us so much." The tiger was letting out a low growl with each word.

"Because that's our job," Nick looked over at Judy who was already treating the wounded badger "even if we don't agree with someone else's view we still need to step in and protect them when they are being assaulted." Nick looked back down at the tiger giving an extra push on the tigers back as another growl came from him, "Like what you were just doing to him, who knows how much damage you did to him but you better believe that you will be arrested and charged and he will be cared for."

Wolford and Delgato were the first uniformed officers to arrive, "Okay Nick and Judy we have it from here, an ambulance is on its way and we'll deal with him."

Nick lifted his paw from the back of the tiger, "He's all yours." and walked over to Judy who was still tending to the badger.

She was shaking as she held a piece of her shirt she had torn off to a deep cut on the badger's face, "Why would he do that, this is just going to make things worse."

"Worse for him Judy, everyone will see that we came to this mammals defense. Even if he didn't like our way of life we still defended him when he needed it." Nick patted Judy on the shoulder as phones and cameras captured the two taking care of the injured badger.

Gideon did not sleep well the first night he had brought Sharla back from the hospital. He was awakened by every little sound she made, even if it was just moving in her crib. She had also woken up several times throughout the night to feed so Gideon had gotten very little sleep as he made his way to the Hopps dining room.

"Good morning Gideon." Bonnie turned around hearing him walk in, "Rough night I take it."

"You could say that." He sat down at the table rubbing his paws on his temples.

"Welcome to parenthood, I'll get you a nice large cup of coffee."

"Much appreciated Bonnie." He watched as she poured out to cups of coffee, bringing them and a bottle of creamer setting one cup in from of him as she sat across from the tired new dad.

He poured in a small amount of creamer and took a deep drink from the cup, "Now that's some good coffee Bonnie, thank you."

"Your welcome Gideon, so what plans do you have for today?" You older bunny looking at him smiling knowing exactly how he felt with the first night having the little one.

"Well… first I think I'm going to bring Sharla home."

Bonnie was mid-sip causing her to chock slightly on the coffee, "You don't have to leave Gideon, we told you that you can stay as long as you need." She had a worried look in her eyes.

"Yes you did," He was looking into his coffee slowly staring it with a spoon, "but I want to take her home, that's where we both should be. It's helped to be here but I really think I've just been hiding. Don't worry we'll visit often, but its time I brought my daughter home."

Bonnie smiled warmly at him, "I'll hold you to that about visiting and remember if you ever need a babysitter were always here for you."

He finished his coffee and stood up from the table, "Thank you again for everything, Bonnie. I'll never forget the kindness you have shown me."

He walked back to his room and saw Sharla was still sleeping, so he quietly packed up the small amount of clothes he had and placed Sharla back into her car seat. Walking to the front door Bonnie was waiting for him with a small brown bag. "Take these, there blueberry scones that I made fresh this morning." She gave him the bag and then pulled him into a hug, "Just remember your always welcome here Gideon."

He smiled at how caring Bonnie was being to him, "I'll be sure to come by often, little Sharla is going to need some playmates."

Bonnie let go of him and opened the door, "That she will, and there will always be plenty of little ones running around to play with."

Gideon just smiled and headed to his van, carefully placing the car seat in its base and then getting in himself. He grabbed one of the scones and munched on it as he drove down the bumping driveway again trying his best to avoid the holes. However, instead of turning towards his house he went in the opposite way and looked down at the sleeping kit, "We have one stop before going home little one." He drove for a short time before turning into another dirt driveway. The steeple bells were lightly chiming out time as he brought his car to a stop, the ringing waking Sharla up form her sleep.

She blinked and looked around before locking her eyes on Gideon and squirming in her seat. He unbuckled the strap and held her close to him as he got out and began walking along the freshly mowed grass leading him to his destination. A mammal was walking around with a bucket and sponge cleaning the marble and granite stones as Gideon sat on the grass in front of one with four names engraved into it. He reached out with his free paw placing it onto the stone and turn Sharla slightly to see it. "Good morning my loves. Sorry, its taken so long to visit. I needed the extra bit of strength that little Sharla here gave me, I hope you don't mind I named her after you." He let his paw trace out the name, Sharla Grey, on the marble headstone as tears freely fell from his eyes.


End file.
